The Eternal Dance of Light and Dark
by victorbranoliver
Summary: Caiellis is the son of the Lucaelian king, and feels crushed by the weight of expectation. When the Scholaria Magnus is established, he thinks that it will be a perfect opportunity to get away from the pressure and truly see the world. However, he is drawn into a complex conflict, and as the fragile relationships of the factions begin to fracture, Caiellis has to make hard choices.
1. Introduction

_Introduction_

_Welp, this is the new story I was prattling on about! It is set in a world of my creation loosely following the patterns of Mana. Each magic user in the world is paired with a creature from Sancturia (a spirit world mirroring the human/real one) at birth, their Summoning, and their magic is based upon this creature. The Summonings, once brought into the world by the birth of the human, then reside inside their mind, and can only be controlled when the human passes a test of their choosing. Sancturia often bleeds over into reality, causing dangerous zone filled with Unbound creatures. Also, technology in the world is controlled by magic. More will be explained in the storyline, but I thought it would be relevant to introduce the concept here, as well as the four main factions._

Lucael, Kingdom of Light

Occupying the north-west of the super-continent Magnus-Primae, the Lucaelians are a people primarily associated with White mana, upholding the values of unity, community and control. Living in a dark and depressing climate has made them value the light, becoming obsessed with it as there are only a few hours in each day in Lucael, and the vast majority of these will be without sunlight – so much so that any day with sunlight immediately becomes one of prayer and celebration. Only the sunlight in Lucael is good enough for them however, and as such they view the light of other factions as impure, as it doesn't bring the same magical warmth of the Lucael's sun.

Residing within gigantic metropolis cities of gothic architecture, they have crushed nature and the wildness that comes with it, heavily defending their cities to the point of extreme xenophobia. Their hatred of difference stems from how dangerous Lucael is when one is not in one of the cities – creatures of the night prowl the perpetual darkness. The cities were built by the first King, Matalis Ortus Lucerna, the first Lucaelian with an angel Summoning, and his and his family's descendants became the monarchs. They have an extremely strict and inflexible society and hierarchy, the noble families deciding much of the fate of the kingdom. Law is taken extremely seriously, with many painful punishments for crimes.

The night outside is a product of an overlapping zone of Sancturia plunging the land into darkness, with many violent and deadly Unbound creatures stalking through shadows. As travelling in the darkness is out of the question, each of the major five cities is connected by monorails guarded by troops and mages. This also means that vast swathes of land in Lucael are unpopulated, as they are far too hazardous for isolated villages and towns. Technology is reasonably advanced in Lucael, more-so due to recent agreements with the Yentarian Republic, however their magic doesn't interact that well with it, so isn't used in combat, only for appliances like clocks and the aforementioned trains.

Religion has quite a large part on their lives, with the angels and other powerful manifestations of Sancturia (and by extension, the royal family) are venerated as gods – they are regarded to be the divine messengers of the sunlight. Powerful mage-priests have huge amounts of influence, and each city is ruled over by a Hierarch and Guardian, the former being the one with more magical power in their Summoning and the latter with more physical, more often than not the leader of that city's armies. These are in turn commanded by the royal family, who reside in the largest city: Capitalia Lux.

Each descendant of Matalis has a birthmark somewhere on their body – a specific symbol associated with an angel that becomes imprinted when said angel visits them at birth. A few angels have become well known, with several ancestors of the child having the same Summoning, whilst others rarely appear. The next monarch of Lucael is not based upon age order – when the current ruler dies, they will have a vision of one of their children taking the throne, and choose their successor based upon this.

The magic of the lawful Lucaelians is associated with light and White mana because the creatures from Sancturia that become their Summonings are too, and although other colours frequently appear the one that is outlawed is Black, as that symbolises the darkness surrounding the safe cities. Several traitors have sold their Summoning in a ritual known as an Infernal Bargain, swapping the creatures of White for ones of darkness and shadow. This permanently sacrifices their old Summoning, who is unable to return to Sancturia and dissolves into the earth.

Think: the Orzhov Syndicate, the Abzan Houses, Benalia, Thune and Thraben.

.*.*.*.

The Yentarian Republic

Residing in the north-east of Magnus-Primae, the Yentarian republic occupy the island-chain of Yentar and some of the nearby continent, and are affiliated with Blue mana. Their entire ideology revolves around the pursuit of knowledge, and as such each part of the territory is vastly different as every League (or sub-faction) tries to find understanding in their own unique way. They are unified by the Council, made up of elected representatives from each sub-faction who put aside their differences to interact with other kingdoms in a united fashion.

Each sub-faction supplies the overall republic with resources and arms, and those who would invade thinking the researchers to be easy prey would be in for a shock. Technology is extremely well-developed in Yentar, as several leagues believe that only with superior equipment and machinery will true understanding be found.

Yentar itself is the result of a Blue mana associated part of Sancturia overlapped, causing immense floods to the ancient empire that controlled the formerly mainland territory. The Yentarians have the most interaction with other kingdoms, the League of Isak believing that knowledge will be found through each faction working together and by learning from each. Although there are still some dangerous Unbound lurking in the waters between the disparate islands, Yentar is mostly peaceful as war has become unnecessary – weapons have been created that would end wars between Leagues at the mere threat of activation.

As each of the philosophies of each League is vastly different, so too are the Summonings from each. Blue creatures are by far the most common, although each colour is utilised to some extent. However, Red and Green are viewed with the most disdain, the latter far more than the former, even though is used by one of the sub-factions. Red is disliked because of the tendency to ruin carefully lain plans and investigations, while Green on its own is abhorred as it represents the regression of technology and learning. This means that most of the Yentarians feel antipathy towards the Erians, as they wish for everything to be under the rule of nature.

There are four main Leagues of Thought in the Yentarian Republic, although there are far more than just these.

The League of Isak believe that learning should be done through one's own mind and with others, rather than using technology to create insights into the world. They regularly exercise the mind and body to keep it open and healthy. Their main Summonings are enigmatic elementals of natural essence. It was their idea that the Scholaria Magnus was created, which is an education facility for prominent teenagers from each kingdom.

The League of Uveria think that enlightenment will be obtained through the purity of the machine, often foregoing using biological-physical force to achieve their goals. They Summon huge constructs of metal and wise sphinxes.

The League of Xechun teaches that the flash of realisation after an experiment is true understanding – they are the most fiery and passion-driven of the leagues, and are famed for causing huge amounts of damage with their "tests". Usual creatures consist of drakes, djinn and the occasional Blue-associated dragon.

Finally, the mysterious and almost outlaw League of Thrazek maintain that true wisdom can only be achieved after the subjugation of all life, so that it can be controlled and manipulated to become the ultimate creature. They practice body modification and often use Black mana to achieve their goals. They Summon horrors, fey creatures and shapeshifters. However, even more disturbing is that members without a Summoning that would aide them in their objectives often modifies their own creature, creating terrifying cross-breeds and mutants.

Think: Esper, Jeskai, Simic, Izzet, Meletis and Neurok.

.*.*.*.

Eria, Conclave of the Wild

Living in the lush jungles of southern Magnus-Primae, the Erians are a hardy people that have to contend with all manner of immensely dangerous predator Unbound that would hunt their tribes to extinction given the chance. The forests of Eria are extremely hazardous, as although there is plenty of food there is also a huge amount of competition. Instead of trying and failing to change the landscape around them to fit their needs, the Erians have learnt to adapt to nature, as such they use Green mana. They are led by a group of mysterious shamans and druids that hold together the disparate tribes populating the forest.

They live in villages and towns located in the canopies of mind-bogglingly gigantic trees, high up in the air to avoid predators.

Each tribesmember has a specific purpose in the tribe – whether that is a hunter, artisan, warrior, gatherer or something else is decided when they reach "adulthood". As life for the humans in the great forest is difficult, the average age of Erians is much lower than that of other factions, and a child is considered an adult when they reach their 10th birthday. Mages of exceptional power that are born are taken away from their tribe to become shamans, who hold absolute power as they a reputedly able to communicate with the personification of nature itself.

The most stable dwelling of the reclusive Erians is Geansse, a large city on the outskirts of the forest that has had several dealings with outsiders – in the past, it fended off many assaults from the Welkas Empire and desperate Lucaelian armies attempting to escape from their eternal darkness, but now it is a trading point and a place of interaction with other kingdoms. This is a much safer and more civilised place than the other villages scattered throughout the forest, however they view the Geansseans as soft and not used to the hardship of the "true" wild, despite the fact that their lives are arguably harder, having to repel many invasions and raids from the ever-aggressive Welkas Empire.

The shamans that lead the Erian Conclave are immensely powerful, with some of the most mana-intensive Summonings like gargantuan manifestations of nature's wrath and gigantic Sancturia creatures. They venerate the Unbound versions of these behemoths, each of them completely unaware of its human worshippers

Think: Naya, Setessa, Selesnya and Temur.

.*.*.*.

Welkas, Empire of Passion

The final kingdom is located in the arid and hot plains and mountains of eastern Magnus-Primae, and is home to a fiery and emotional people. The Welkalites have a warrior culture based upon waging constant wars and raids – they believe that violence is one of the best passions for proving one's own strength, and are always itching for a good fight, taking offence at perceived insults and using it as an excuse to start a scrap. They primarily utilise Red mana, as it reflects their desire for individuality and

Their entire philosophy revolves around achieving individual goals and each person doing what pleases them most – in that respect, they are very hedonistic, but adversely they are extremely free people that will help fight against those they believe to be bullies or oppressors. This stems from their not too distant past – Welkas was a kingdom ruled by an autocratic and repressive monarchy of tyrants who strictly controlled the free spirits of their subjects, forcing them under their rule with the power of their Summonings, unstoppable Sancturia dragons. While the first in the long line was a brutal military general, they became ever more decadent and corrupt with each generation, hoarding huge amounts of wealth and pleasure to themselves. Thirty years ago, the last of that line of corrupt tyrants was slain by Jarred Redhand, an inspired revolutionary that led a large rebellion against the fracturing control of the Empire.

Free from the yoke of control, the Welkalites were able to do whatever they wish – there were no rules, anything was fair play. As he saw the society begin to tear apart after he had spent so long trying to free them, Jarred knew that something would have to be done to prevent the utter collapse of order, as chaos would reign and the streets would run red with blood. To this end, he established the Orders of Passion, carefully controlled groups that each pursue a different type of hedonism.

By far the largest is the Order of Violence, which also forms the main army of the New Empire. It is comprised of hot-headed youths who wish to achieve martial glory, and older veterans who are addicted to the rush of combat. They are led by generals who have established themselves by proving to be stronger than all competitors, most of which have deadly Summonings. They often attack other kingdoms, which has made the New Welkas Empire extremely unpopular – especially with the Lucaelians, who view them as impulsive and ridiculous.

The cities of Welkas are famed for the fact that anything can be purchased there for the right price, and are often visited by representatives of other kingdoms, who are dazzled by those in the Orders of Entertainment and Rapture.

Think: Xenagos, Rakdos, Mardu and Gruul.


	2. Awakenings

Caiellis's eyes snapped open, the remnants of the dream slowly fading from his sight as he sat up in the plumb bed, pushing the soft covers off him. He checked the time on the ornate but not ostentatious watch next to him on the cabinet to the left of his bed – 07:02. His dad would probably already be awake and ready to start the day's long list of objectives; the man barely slept anyway, kept conscious by his worries and grief.

The boy yawned, wondering whether he should go back to sleep – he didn't need to get up for another three hours, but although Caiellis couldn't quite remember what had happened in the nightmare, he sub-consciously knew that he had no intentions of returning to the realm of dreams. Sliding over the side of his bed, he started to do what he had done every single time he had woken up.

Caiellis stepped sleepily across the room towards the long purple curtains in front of the window, tiredly rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He yanked the drapes open, and was greeted by the expansive city of Capitalia Lux stretching out as far as he could see. He sighed as, once again, the city was swathed in darkness, the feeble lights of those already awake like faint and distant stars in an obscure constellation. _Of course. Of Course, _he thought vaguely dejectedly, used to the feeling of disappointment, _It hasn't been sunny any day in the thirteen years of my life, why would it be now?_

He looked up, meeting the reflection of a youthful-looking pale boy with high cheek-bones and dark green eyes shrouded by messy brown hair staring coldly back. His eyes were drawn to the birthmark on his cheek – the eight-pronged Black Sun was imprinted on the boy's left cheek, and Caiellis's hand automatically went to his right, his thin fingers lightly stroking the conformation of royalty.

Trapped in his silent contemplation, Caiellis spun around in surprise when a hand gently tapped him on the shoulder. He glared at the grinning face of Alexander, Caiellis's calm face becoming guarded, who smirked even wider at his younger brother.

Alexander had a stern face that was offset by the fact he often wore a grin or smirk, and had inherited the pale blue eyes and short blonde hair of his father. He was a tall and muscular seventeen-year old, much stronger than his smaller sibling. His birthmark was the crossed Swords of Flame stamped onto his right bicep, matching his fiery angelic Summoning, Aurelia.

"I didn't know you still did that, squirt," he laughed, motioning towards the window. Annoyed that his brother had been able to creep up on him like that, Caiellis replied curtly: "I don't know why I do. Why are you up so early?"

"I could say the same to you. I heard you open the curtains. I suppose I just wanted to check if you were alright," Alexander sighed at his brother's incredulous expression. Only a year ago, they had been extremely close, Caiellis would share anything with his brother and Alexander would always be there to protect him. His little brother was the most open person he had known, and as their father hadn't really had the time for them, Alexander had basically raised his four-years younger brother. But as soon as Caiellis hit his thirteenth birthday, he became guarded, keeping his emotions and thoughts to himself.

"Sorry if I woke you up," the boy apologised quietly, and the older fondly ruffled his messy dark hair.

"Nah, it's fine, I'd already woken up hours ago," he said. He slept in the adjacent room to the smaller boy, as when Caiellis was younger he had been terrified of the eternal darkness and had needed to share a room with the protective form of his big brother. That was another thing their relationship had recently lost, in the past the little brother always wanted to be with Alexander, craving the comfort of his nurturing sibling, but now he seemingly shied away from physical contact.

Alex knew that a lot of Caiellis's change was down to their father, King Marik Ensis Lucerna, returning from his war. Alex's brother had been having troubles passing the test his Summoning had set for him, but the older boy had been supportive of him, constantly reassuring him that one day he would be able to do it. That had changed when Marik came back, annoyed at his youngest's failure to Summon, telling him that he would be useless as a king if he was not able to even complete "the simplest of tasks".

Alex knew that his brother worked extremely hard to pass the test, exhausting himself by attempting it as much as his fragile body would allow. If he looked deep into Caiellis's green eyes, past the barriers of determination that would fool anyone else that didn't know him so well, he could see the hurt and pain of rejection.

"Are you even listening to me?" Caiellis inquired loudly, gracing his brother with the inquisitive eyes he used often as an innocent child.

Alex remembered his friend's fear of the perpetual night, and had often told him stories about brave heroes venturing out into the dark and protecting young children like him from monsters. Caiellis had always wanted to see the sunlight, and as such Alex had carried him to the window of their room every morning so that they could check for light. Even when the smaller boy was old enough and tall enough to complete the task himself, every time he would wait for Alexander to wake up, wide-eyed anticipation etched onto his youthful face. He found it nostalgic and incredibly cute that his brother still adhered to that old childhood habit.

"Sorry, shortie, sometimes it's hard to hear what you are saying from up here," he teased, grinning at the daggers Caiellis sent him. Although the smaller boy had grown quite a bit the past few years, he was still slight compared to his tall brother. It didn't help that along with the increase in height, his childhood pudginess had also faded away, leaving him gaunt and thin for his age.

"I was thinking about trying the test again," Caiellis muttered bitterly, not wanting to meet Alexander's concerned eyes, finding them full of pity.

"At least have breakfast first," he suggested, putting a large arm around his sibling and dragging the reluctant boy with him, "I'll make you pancakes,"

Alex beamed as he saw his brother's eyes light up slightly – even though the palace had access to some of the most proficient chefs of the kingdom, Alexander's pancakes were still his favourite breakfast, despite the fact that the older boy was a mediocre cook at best. Caiellis stopped struggling and his brother pressed on, eager to not waste the precious time he would be spending with him before he attempted the test again, and then was inevitably comatose for the rest of the day. "Cai, I'll add extra syrup, just how you like it."

His plan of coaxing his brother out of his shell seemed to be working, and Alex slung the boy over his shoulder and carried him out of the room

.*.*.*.

After a filling breakfast of the promised pancakes, Caiellis once again made to go to his sanctum and attempt the Summoning, but Alex again stopped him.

"What do you want?" the younger boy demanded in annoyance, and Alex shrugged his shoulders, replying: "I just want to spend a day with my little brother. Is there a problem with that?"

"You know full well that there is," Cai snapped, his eyes full of irritation and he tried to pull away from Alexander, who asked: "What, then? What is the problem?"

"I can't do a Summoning! How can I be trusted with anything if I can't even do that? I need to try every day until I can! Let go!" he shouted, tears gathering at the edges of his vision. He wiped his eyes quickly on the back of his sleeve, he didn't want his brother, or anyone in his family for that matter, to see him crying, but the action was not lost on Alex.

"Calm down, Cai. It's going to take a long time for a Summoning as powerful as yours." the larger boy soothed, and playfully thumped his thin shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Don't be such a girl," Alex teased, and moved a hand round to Caiellis's side, who started to stifle a giggle as his brother tickled him. He had needed to lighten the situation or Caiellis was just going to leave, so he resorted to something he had not done in years. The older brother then went into full-on attack, running his fingers up and down the boy's abdomen, who was laughing hysterically, his frustration gone. _Perhaps__ I should have let him in earlier_, he thought, as Alexander thrust a hand underneath his shirt for maximum tickling efficiency.

His finger brushed over a mark on his brother's skin, and Alex stopped tickling, stretching out his palm across Cai's stomach and instantly switching from tormenting brother to alarmed. Caiellis stopped laughing immediately, and tried to pull away, remembering one of the reasons for shutting Alex out.

"Shirt off. Now," his brother commanded, his blue eyes full of concern. Caiellis sighed and acquiesced to the older boy's wishes, knowing that Alex wouldn't leave him alone and would continuously press the issue until it was resolved. He pulled off the shirt, and heard his brother gasp.

The younger brother's abdomen was covered with a large amount of small criss-cross knife-wounds – the oldest couldn't be older than around a month, whereas the most recent could easily have been yesterday. Worry turned into anger as a sick feeling wormed its way through Alex's gut and Caiellis couldn't meet his piercing glare.

"Who did this to you?" he demanded, roughly grabbing hold of his brother's bare shoulders and examining the wounds. Luckily, the vast majority of them wouldn't leave scars, as they weren't very deep and the skin would heal back over them, but it didn't remove that fact that someone had hurt _his _little brother without him knowing about it.

"I...I" Caiellis stuttered shakily, tears beginning to well up in his sad eyes, and Alex hugged him comfortingly, whispering: "You can tell me, little brother,"

Taking a deep breath, knowing what Alexander's reaction would be and wishing that he had just pushed his brother away earlier, Caiellis steadied his voice.

"I did it to myself," he uttered softly, his tone becoming blank and losing personality as he started to retreat back inside his shell. Stunned, Alex took a second to process the information, but when he did, his mind filled with rage.

"You did what? Why?!" he shouted, dropping his brother who scampered away from his sibling's wrath.

Alex took a deep breath, mimicking his younger brother's actions from a few seconds ago, and composed his tone. He wouldn't get any answers by shouting at Caiellis, and he needed to know why he had done it before his brother rebuilt the fortifications and would refuse to share any information. Caiellis was impossible to talk to once he had done that – one particular moment of their childhood that he regretted was once beating up the youngest Lucerna after he kept hiding something from his brother – even then, Caiellis hadn't shared anything, and didn't speak to Alex for an entire day afterwards.

"Cai, please talk to me. I'm not angry at you," Alex pleaded, knowing from his brother's blank eyes that he was almost out of reach, "I just need to know why you would do that. You can share things with your big brother,"

He already had an inkling of the reasons behind the boy's self-harm, but needed to hear it confirmed with Cai's own voice. The thirteen year old stared vacantly through his brother for a few seconds, and Alex was about to repeat the statement when Caiellis's head snapped upwards, eyes locked despairingly with those of his brother. Alex saw clearly the fear and pain Cai kept bottled up inside, and wished he had pressed the issue sooner, instead of waiting for things to resolve themselves and leaving his younger brother to his recovery.

"It just...helps," Caiellis tried to explain, and Alexander motioned for him to elaborate, "The pain distracts me from the feeling of failure, the feeling of stress. Every time I fail, I know how disappointed you and dad will be. It helps me ignore the crushing feeling,"

"How many times have you done it?" Alexander asked, wiping the tears away from Caiellis's face and moving his long dark-brown hair out of his eyes, silently promising that his brother would never again feel the need to cause himself pain. _He _was the one supposed to take the pain, _he _was supposed to protect his little brother from harm. The fact that Cai was hurt meant that _he _had failed.

"Only after each Summoning attempt the past month," Caiellis admitted, looking down ashamedly and tracing his fingers along the wounds, wincing at the pain from some of the most recently acquired. He started to slowly put the shirt back on, waiting to see whether his older brother would stop him or not, and continued after a few seconds.

"Never again," Alexander stated, determined that he would prevented Cai from getting hurt again. "If you ever want to self-harm again, tell me and take it out on me instead. Ok?"

"But-"

"OK?"

"I suppose," Caiellis relented, shaking his head at his brother's stubbornness. Alex grinned and clapped his brother good-naturedly on the shoulder, eliciting a scowl from the youngest. He snapped, "Fine, now you know my problems. Leave me alone."

Alex shook his head, knowing that he would have to do something that Caiellis would probably hate him for.

"Come with me," he ordered, gently directing his brother towards the doorway of the dining hall and smiling encouragingly at Caiellis as the boy realised where they were going.

"Don't try to resist. He needs to see this,"

* * *

><p><em>At the end of each chapter, I will leave the name of the card each newly-introduced Summoning is based upon. Type this name into Gatherer, a MtG card search engine (or just google it) to find out what they look like.<em>

Summonings in this chapter: Alexander Ensis Lucerna: Aurelia, the Warleader


	3. Family Arguements

Marik Ensis Lucerna, king of Lucael, sat at the head the council that, despite the fact that it was barely morning, had been running for several hours already. He glared out at the bickering representatives of each of the other four cities. Two Hierarchs and two Guardians had been sent, some of which he had appointed himself but others who had been around before he was crowned. The Hierarch and Guardian of Capitalia Lux had taken their positions to the left and right respectively of the king. The gargantuan hall echoed with the arguing voices, and Marik slammed his hand on the table to silence them.

Hierarch Aretis of Civitas Sol smirked smugly back, an arrogant young man swathed in golden robes that inherited the role from his wise father that Marik found insufferable, though he was tolerated because he was very powerful. His Summoning was an incandescent and imperious angel that aptly represented the City of the Sun.

His counterpart sneered condescendingly at his cockiness – Martha was an aged representative of Scientia Mos, the City of Books that was made up of a huge amount of libraries, though none matched the ancient splendour of the palace's. She was a trusted advisor of the king that was well known for her wisdom, and although her Summoning was the least offensively powerful of any of the ten remaining Light-bearers, a venerable and sagacious Lammasu, Martha could give out the correct advice in almost any situation, and her stoic presence at the council was gratefully received. She had been Emili's mentor before her engagement to Marik, who sorely missed his wife.

Xathan, Slayer of the Wicked was the Guardian of Cassida Principia, City of Swords, the most militaristic of the five cities, was a similarly-aged comrade of the king's that could sometimes be thick-headed and bellicose, but had proved himself numerous times on the field of battle. Befitting of his station, he was clothed in polished but still dented and worn armour that had carried him through many engagements, although the scabbard was empty at his hips, as tradition dictated. Xathan used a warrior angel that could inspire the common troops to victory.

Finally, the representative of Gol, formerly the City of Quiet but now the City of Silence, was Lelia, a once youthful and enthusiastic young warrior that had been the younger sister of the previous Guardian before both him and the Hierarch had been brutally murdered in the Siege of Gol. The atrocities wreaked upon the city left it a shadow of its glorious self, and Lelia had been scarred by the slaughter, but instead of giving up hope she had rallied the people. She had taken a Vow of Silence, promising never to speak until the perpetrators of the heinous act had been brought to justice. That had been nine years ago, and she had not spoken a word since – neither had her Summoning, a vengeful angel that had helped her on her quest.

Marik shared the blame for the surprise attack on Gol and the civil war that resulted – three of the eight cities had sided with his own brother, who had been planning the rebellion ever since Marik had been crowned after the death of their father. Those three cities were now razed to the ground, obliterated from sight and home to the creatures of the darkness.

After his revolt failed, Johnias had fled into the unknown depths of shadow with his most loyal warriors, and his brother had no ideas as to his fate. He had hesitated at the start of the rebellion, not really comprehending the extent of his brother's treachery, but after several greater demons were sent to the palace and took the life of Emili, Marik could never forgive Johnias for taking his love away from him. He had become obsessed, hunting him across their territories and slaughtering the revolting armies in his need for revenge.

It had only been a single month since the violence of the civil war and the final confrontation between the brothers' armies, but already the construction of Gol Secondus, City of Rebirth, had begun next to the ruins of the first. It was a testament to the unity and resolve of the Lucaelians that the wounds the rebellion that had lasted nine years had caused were beginning to heal at such a rate. The physical wounds, anyway.

The king was flanked by Tristram, Champion of Capitalia and childhood hero of his eldest Alexander, and Tybalt, the Hierarch of the capital city and the mentor to his sons.

Marik knew that he should start paying attention to his children now that the war was over, as he hadn't really been there for them the past nine years. He was disappointed that he youngest, Caiellis, had failed to pass the test and achieve his Summoning. He had needed to give the boy an incentive to try harder, as obviously he had been coddled by his older brother and wasn't trying hard enough to pass the test. It had pained him to see the expression of rejection on Caiellis's young face when he had told his son that he was a failure as far as he was concerned, but now maybe the boy wouldn't screw up as much.

His eyes snapped to the heavy wooden doors on the other side of the room as they were slammed open, and all of the council members turned around in alarm at the crash. Tristram stepped protectively in front of his king, axe at the ready, and then snorted when he realised it was only Alexander and Caiellis. Marik's eyes narrowed when he saw the look of smouldering anger on his eldest's face, wondering why the seventeen year old would just barge straight into the council room – he was a respectful boy, and knew that his father wouldn't take too kindly to having the meeting interrupted.

"Dad. We need to talk. Now," Alexander stated, glancing at the other council members' surprised faces. Aretis sniggered under his breath, sensing the volcanic fury bottled up inside the lad, and realising that King Marik would have a hard time diffusing that rage – he definitely didn't envy the king's position. He stifled it when Hierarch Martha glared at him, and the king sighed wearily.

"Fine, that concludes today's council session. Light-bearers, go back to your cities, and begin the process of rebuilding. Ave lux," he intoned, and the representatives bowed respectfully, replying: "Ave lux, my king,"

With that, they began to file out of the chambers, followed swiftly by Tristram and Tybalt at a gesture from Marik. When the wooden doors had closed fully, he let out another impatient sigh, not wanting to have to deal with foolish children. Emili had always been better at this parenting business.

"What is it?" he questioned irritably, and Alexander moved in front of him, yanking the reluctant Caiellis behind by his thin arm, the younger son clearly not wanting to be there.

"Alex, please-" he pleaded, and his brother shot him a reassuring glance that didn't entirely dispel the anger in his eyes, "Cai, I wouldn't be a good big brother if I didn't do this."

He turned his gaze upon his father, who stood up out of his ornate chair at the head of the table. Both Marik and Alexander were tall men, although the latter was slightly shorter than the imposing king. Marik shared the piercing blue eyes, physical build and blonde hair of his eldest, but also the guarded emotions and high cheekbones of his youngest son.

He wore his favoured outfit for interacting with council members and his subjects – a golden but unadorned circlet encircled his forehead, and he was plated in sliver armour that was shined and polished, but not to the extent that it removed the clear battle-damage. An antique longsword was sheathed at his waist, the scabbard furnished with rare and enchanted gemstones.

A cloak of deep purple fell down his back, reminding onlookers that he was not just a warrior, but a politician, diplomat and ruler as well. The armour on his front left his throat bare, where the Blade of Wrath could be clearly seen, his badge of royalty.

Alex pulled Caiellis in front of him, and said: "Kiddo, I'm going to need you to take off your shirt again, ok?" Without saying a word, Caiellis silently made to remove the garment, and heard his father gulp when he saw the knife-wounds.

"Who did that?" Marik asked, analysing the wounds and feeling a parental feeling begin to overcome his initial anger at being interrupted.

"Exactly what I asked," Alex replied, not giving his little brother time to respond – not that Cai was going to, he didn't want the situation to escalate any more than it needed to. He should have just ignored his brother earlier and gone straight onto trying the test, avoiding having Alex confront his father over his self-harm. Why did he care anyway? It was just his way of coping with the feeling of failure. His brother had no right to tell him what he could and could not do.

"Dad, he did it to himself," the older boy stated, and Marik looked confusedly back, thinking about why his child would want to do that.

"Why?" their father inquired, and Alexander shook his head back.

"He said that it was his way of managing with the pressure, he said that he did it every time he failed a Summoning," Alexander snarled, knowing that his father's return had coincided with the start of Cai's self-wounding, and also knowing that Marik would definitely had said something to his younger brother that made him lose his sense of self-worth.

"I don't see a problem with that," Marik uttered calmly, expanding his point after Alexander's outraged expression, "If he wants to do that to himself, fine by me. It gives him another reason not to remain a failure."

"Cai, out. Now," the elder brother instructed, trying to keep the fury he felt out of his voice, his tone brooking no dissent. He certainly didn't want Caiellis to see him and their father arguing – the poor boy had enough on his plate already, hid didn't need anything else to worry about. Caiellis slunk dejectedly out of the room, tears of self-loathing burning at the edges of his vision. Great. Now his dad would dislike him even more, think that he was even weaker and more pathetic. Now how was he supposed to survive with his failures? And of course Alexander had to go and make a huge deal out of everything.

He shot through the corridors, not caring where he went and ignoring the terrified glances some of the servants gave him before scurrying away. He knew that a large number of Lucaelians feared him because of his Summoning, as the last and only person to ever have that was King Xarius, or the self-styled Emperor of Light who used the Angel of the Black Sun to terrorize his subjects into compliance, using the hated Black magic given to him from the dual nature of the angel to reanimate a necrotic army and crush resistance.

He had planned to sacrifice the entire population of Capitalia Lux to fuel his conquest of the world and gain favour with his dark patrons, but had been slain by his niece, Queen Matrice. Her reign had ended over a hundred years ago, but the Lucaelians were notorious for holding grudges and when Xarius's Summoning had appeared at Caiellis's birth, it was said that a few Hierarchs suggested that the babe be murdered to avoid a repeat of the reign of terror.

He thought about just running away, but quickly realised that such an action would be pointless – so long as he was still in one of the cities, his father's soldiers would find him soon enough, as there was no way he'd be able to board one of the monorails without being identified. He could retreat out of the safety of the cities, but dismissed that idea. Caiellis was too much of a coward to venture into the darkness.

Maybe he should just kill himself. He felt worthless. It wasn't like anyone even wanted him around, and there would be no chance he could be made king and screw up even more if he was dead – his father thought he was a failure, and the people feared him. Well, there was Alex, but his big brother was one against hundreds.

Caiellis laughed as his path led him to the entrance of the palace library – a huge repository of knowledge that stretched far underground, once his favourite place to relax before he had begun incessantly attempting the test. The palace library held the Codex Angelica, a bestiary of the many different Lucaelian Summonings, with a large section dedicated solely to each angel that had graced the world with its presence. His subconscious was obviously trying to tell him something.

He resolved to find a good book and become lost in the stories of battles between mighty heroes and dastardly monsters, and wait for the depressing thoughts to go away. Then he would check on his brother to see if he had finished. As he walked in, waving at the venerable caretaker who nodded back at his favourite visitor, Cai randomly chose an aisle of books to walk down, figuring that his unconscious mind had served him well already.

The boy blinked in mild incredulity as he noticed a tanned young woman wearing strange clothing with her head in an open book snoring softly in front of him.

Caiellis smiled, realising she was a Yentarian researcher and recognising her from when she arrived in Capitalia Lux and was granted entry to the library. He removed her silken jacket, gently pulling out the book from underneath her head, bookmarking the page, and replacing it with the garment of clothing. She was quite a heavy sleeper – the boy had been scared about waking her, not really wanting a conversation but feeling like he should do something to comfort her more.

Cai then left her, going to get a drink and some food from the curator, who often took a meal after Caiellis used to pop in regularly as a child and spend the day there, out of the way. The old man still followed that habit in the hope that the boy would start visiting again, as it was an incredibly lonely job.

.*.*.*.

"What the fuck do you mean, you don't see a problem?" Alexander exploded, letting out the anger he felt once he was sure that his younger brother had exited the room and was out of earshot, "Do you not care one bit about him? I know that you are obsessed with bringing your brother to justice and avenging mum, but could you at least spare a thought for him? It's partly your fault that this happened!" Alex felt magical power building up inside of him, the Red mana responding to his rage while the White reacting to his protectiveness of his brother.

"I though I had taught you to be more respectful than that," Marik replied coldly, letting out some of his pure White mana to match the release of his son – he wasn't afraid to fight in the chambers, they had withstood much worse over the years. Anyway, it would be good to see how powerful one of the potential heirs to the throne had become – training sessions were one thing, but Alexander wouldn't hold back in his angered state, "Disappointing. It seems like I will have to discipline you,"

Alex breathed in deeply, feeling the sensation of mana running through him as he began the Summoning. A circle of fiery orange surrounded him, followed by one of white that pulse outwards. He felt the Swords of Flame light up on his right bicep, and sensed the familiar tingle coursing through his veins.

"Aurelia!" he cried, and the circles on the floor flashed with incandescent light, expanding upwards around the boy.

When the light had died down, the slow beat of huge wings could be heard, and Alexander looked gratefully up at the angel in front of him. Armoured by dark-silver plates that covered her human-like form and framed by bright, unembellished wings that gracefully held her aloft, Aurelia had a head of scarlet hair that spilled out behind a helm the same colour of her armour. The Warleader held two swords out in front of her – one was straight-bladed while the other was twisted and elegant.

Marik nodded at the well known sight of the fiery angel, and relaxed his breathing – his breaths had subconsciously become shorter; he had never quite been able to get over the feeling of awe whenever he saw an angel that close. Foregoing the ceremony his son had to go through due to his relative inexperience with Summoning, Marik placed his palms facing each other and in front of the Blade of Wrath, calmly channelling the White mana through him, creating a sphere of pale light in his hands.

"Akroma," he uttered, letting the sphere grow until it eclipsed his form and forced his eldest to look away. The light began to take a shape, and another angel was Summoned. The Angel of Wrath was clothed in pale armour with golden edging that left much of her waxen skin uncovered and also decorated the top of her open wings. She wielded a colossal broadsword of a marble-like Sancturia metal one-handed, the blade the shape of the king's birthmark. Akroma had blue hair – the only colour on her – above small eyes that regarded her opponent coldly.

"Sister," she spoke, her voice lacking anything resembling emotion – the two angels were opposites, Aurelia represented the emotions of the defenders of justice, whereas Akroma was the aloof avatar of endless duty. Alexander leapt forwards, his fist wrapped in golden flames, and Aurelia followed him, igniting her twin swords and diving at her sister. Marik blocked with a conjured shield of White, while his Summoning deflected the blades of her counterpart with her immense sword.

Alexander launched another strike, knowing that he would have to stay on the offensive before his father could bring his greater magical energy to bear. He didn't really know what he wanted to accomplish by fighting his dad, but had needed to release the rage he felt at his brother's mistreatment. Maybe if he proved to Marik that his sons were worth listening to would his father actively try to help Caiellis.

"Don't you realise what your words have done to him?" he shouted, and the king grimaced as a kick from his son caught him off guard, sending him staggering back. Perhaps he had underestimated Alexander, and shouldn't be holding back as much power.

"What, given him an incentive to try harder? Good. He can't stay a failure forever," he replied through his teeth, repelling a blistering series of strikes that cracked his shield. He let out a bit more mana, watching as Akroma used that to send a lance of light at the opposing angel, who met it with her own spear of conjured flame.

"Caiellis tries harder than anyone I have ever met, including myself!" Alexander yelled as Marik began to counter-attack, drawing the sword at his waist and forcing his eldest to parry an arcing overhead blow on his bracers. Sparks shot from the ringing impact of metal-on-metal, and Alex had to jump back to avoid being impaled on his father's blade – he was sure that the man wasn't attacking with the intent to kill, but it would surely signify his defeat if he allowed a blow like that to get through. "Can't you tell? He attempts the test every day, and it exhausts him! Cai hardly eats, and all he thinks about is how to try differently and complete his Summoning. He doesn't have any friends, and he barely even talks to anyone any-more! It's killing him, how can you not see that? Or are you just too fucking blind to realise what is happening to your youngest? My acceptance is not good enough for Caiellis on its own, I've always tried to make him feel welcome, so he doesn't see a change! He just needs you to notice him! He just needs your love!"

Alex beckoned his Summoning over, Aurelia breaking off from her duel with Akroma, and together began channelling mana into a devastating spell.

"That's enough," Marik declared, his voice loud and commanding but bereft of anger. He released a huge amount of White energy and forcefully dispelled Aurelia before the spell could be completed, who returned inside of his eldest's body in a jolt of mana, knocking him off of his feet. He then dismissed Akroma, who returned to the Summoning Realm with a salute, her duty done for now. He sighed for the third time and paced over to his son's side, hoisting the teen to his feet.

"Quite the display of power," he commented, proud of Alexander's courage to fight his father and king. He had taken the boy's words to heart – he did barely ever see his youngest, and he remembered Hierarch Tybalt's words from a few days ago: "_You shouldn't be too harsh on Caiellis, he is constantly trying to pass the trial and access his Summoning." _Marik had disregarded his advisor's words, saying that obviously his son wasn't trying hard enough, but now with Alex's outburst, he paid more heed to the warning.

"Yeah, well, someone has to stick up for the runt, because he's not going to do it himself," his eldest responded, sullenly, annoyed at the fact that he had been defeated so quickly. Noticing his disappointed, Marik sat down beside him put a fatherly arm around his shoulders, glad by the fact that he didn't shy away from the contact, and said: "I should probably teach you how to resist that spell,"

They sat in silence for a few seconds, and just as Alex made to speak his dad interrupted him, "I have arranged for you both to have a place at the Scholaria Magnus,"

"Huh? What's that?" his eldest son asked, a curious look on his face.

"It is a school that has been recently constructed in neutral territory by members of each of the four kingdoms for fifteen to eighteen year olds, although I was able to use my influence to ensure your brother was also able to go,"

"You're sending us away?" Alex replied disbelievingly, "But dad, you only just got back from the civil war!"

"And I'm clearly incapable of being a proper father yet!" Marik snapped back, silencing his child. "Anyway," he continued, "I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet important children from other factions, and hone your magical skills." He left the fact that he hoped it would allow Caiellis to unlock his Summoning unspoken, knowing that it would be on his boy's mind, "Also, it will be good for your little brother. He needs to make friends, and when you both return, I will be ready to act as your father. I promise."

Marik looked deep into Alexander's eyes, trying to find acceptance there and doing so when his son stared back. The boy turned away, rising to his feet and saying: "I'll go tell the little man then."

"No, I'll do it. I need to speak with him anyway, and make sure he is alright," the king stated, placing a placating hand on Alex's shoulder and also standing up. He laughed, and said, "How many nicknames do you have for him, anyway?"

Alex smirked back, glad that the boys' dad was actively trying to heal the relationship between him and Caiellis, replying: "Each one is for a specific situation to get a different response,"

"Seriously?"

"Nah, I just do it to annoy him."

Marik pushed the doors open and strode confidently out, and returned a few seconds later with a vaguely embarrassed expression on his face.

"Where will he have gone?" the king asked of his older son, realising that he knew almost nothing about his youngest. Smiling patiently in a way that Marik was sure the older brother used on the younger, Alexander said: "Cai will have gone to the royal library. Make sure that you are patient with him, and slowly coax him out of his shell. Don't be too forceful or he'll just push you away. You can thank me later."

* * *

><p>New Summonings in this chapter:<p>

Marik Ensis Lucerna: Akroma, Angel of Wrath

Hierarch Aretis: Admonition Angel

Hierarch Martha: Venerable Lammasu

Guardian Xathan: Angelic Overseer

Guardian Lelia: Angel of Retribution


	4. Learning

_The third chapter of the Eternal Dance. Do you like the story? What improvements would you suggest? Please review!_

Jenna jolted awake, at first forgetting where she was and almost falling over backwards, knocking over the stool she had been sat on. The events of the past few days then came back to her, and she remembered that she was supposed to be researching about Lucaelian culture. _Shit,_ Jenna thought, glancing at the watch still strapped to her right forearm. The hands showed that it was only 8:13, and the Yentarian breathed a sigh of relief. She still had plenty of time to get enough research done if she started now.

She turned around, finding her notes carefully arranged on the desk next to her and the book she had been reading closed, but with a bookmark in the page Jenna had been on. Jenna also noticed that she had been sleeping on her jacket, instead of the book which she had been taking notes from. Clearly someone had seen her and decided to help her but chose to leave the young woman asleep.

She also saw a plate of appetizing looking pastry-cases and a mug of steaming caffeine, and gratefully gobbled the meal. The twenty year old stood up, stretching and preparing for another day of relative inactivity, when a small voice piped up, making her jump.

"So you're awake then?" a slight boy asked, although the question itself was quite redundant. Getting straight to the point, as she didn't want to be interrupted from her investigation any more, she asked: "Were you the one that helped me, and put the food there?"

"Caiellis Noctis Lucerna, at your service," he answered back, sketching a quick bow and smiling at the Yentarian. Jenna instantly fell to her knees – the boy was royalty, and the Lucaelians certainly took their rulers very seriously, so the Yentarian didn't want to show disrespect. She heard Caiellis sigh, and the woman kept her voice level as she said: "I am Jenna Bylae, my lord. I am a researcher from the Yentarian Republic, part of the League of Isak."

"Well then, Jenna, could you please stand up? I'm not used to being above people," Caiellis joked, and the woman nodded her head gratefully and got back to her feet, where she could fully examine the heir in front of her. Despite his relatively jovial manner, there was something wrong with the boy, inner feelings that were concealed by the veneer of false happiness Caiellis currently wore.

Faded tear tracks that he had clearly tried to rub away were still stark on his face, especially where they met the birthmark on an eight-pointed sun on his cheek, which glowed amethyst where the tears had ran over. His emerald green eyes also showed a large amount of emotional pain, although when he sensed her scrutiny they became guarded. Had he not been royalty, Jenna would have asked him what was wrong and attempted to console him, but she thought it would be a mistake to pry into his problems. To that end, she pretended to not notice his obvious distress, and made to continue with her research.

"If you would please excuse me, my lord, I have carry on with my work. Thank you for making me more comfortable and giving me food," Jenna bowed and turned around, hearing the prince sigh again.

"Stop calling me "my lord". I have done nothing to deserve that title yet," Caiellis spat, and then reigned in the emotion that was inflecting his tone, "Anyway, I may be able to help you with your research. It's not like I have anything else to do,"

"I appreciate the offer, my l-... Caiellis, but surely you don't have the time to assist a humble researcher such as myself?" Jenna tried not to offend the prince as she sat back down, but she really didn't need children slowing down her work.

She was already behind as it was, the notes had to be handed in before the start of the Scholaria Magnus's first term, so that the Lucaelians could be accommodated properly. Several other investigators had also been dispatched so the Yentarians could understand more about other cultures – however King Marik Ensis Lucerna had only permitted one into his kingdom. A lot of responsibility rested on her shoulders, and falling asleep had been bad enough.

Cai narrowed his eyes at the rebuttal of his proposal and the fact that Jenna evidently did not want the teenager here, but he was interested to see what she was researching. He supposed that if it came to it, he could force the young woman to have him assist her, but that would be extremely hypocritical of his earlier statement, not to mention incredibly spoilt and petty.

"Were you not listening? I just said that I had nothing else to do. I promise that I will not get in the way."

"I must insist-"

"Please?" the boy pleaded, giving the woman the puppy dog eyes he had often used as a child on Alexander. Jenna sighed. How could she resist something so cute?

"Fine, fine, just stop doing that!" she relented, and Caiellis smirked triumphantly, pulling over another nearby stool and sitting next to the Yentarian. Jenna then explained the research she was undertaking – a full analysis of Lucaelian culture coupled with notes of the common Summonings. Caiellis listened intently when she outlined the inscriptions she had already completed – Jenna had almost finished a brief examination of the culture of the (ironically named) Kingdom of Light, but hadn't even started to record any of the Sancturia creatures that were Summoned due to the distinct lack of material.

The boy grinned at that and stood up, quickly striding to the dusty altar in the centre of the library. Jenna had pondered its purpose at first, and came to the conclusion that it would have been used some years ago in delivering lessons to students in the library, but had gone unused for some time.

She cocked an eyebrow when Caiellis closed his eyes and uttered a small incantation, light flowing from his hands and onto the altar. When the magic touched the altar, Jenna nodded her head, impressed as a huge book materialised onto the plinth. The tome was embossed with an intricate cover of entwined gold and silver, and seemed to hold a vast amount of information judging its thickness.

Caiellis tried to pick it up, but almost succeeded in dropping it – in the past Alexander had repeatedly got it for him, his older brother always making difficult tasks of physical strength look easy. He sent an embarrassed glance over at Jenna, who took the hint and moved over to the boy. Together they moved the book over to the wooden desk, which creaked alarmingly under the tome's weight.

"The Codex Angelica," Caiellis announced, smiling proudly at Jenna's awe at such a large repository of knowledge, "A complete bestiary of every Lucaelian Summoning encountered yet, restricted to royalty and those trusted with the revealing spell."

Concern etched over Jenna's fascinated features for a moment, and she said: "Won't your father be angry at you for this?"

She noted how Caiellis eyes became stony at the mention of King Marik, and the boy replied: "I'm not going to let you look at all of it, several sections are hidden, even from me – that means we won't be able to look at them. Please refrain from the entire first half of the book, as that is where the angels are recorded."

"And if I don't?" Jenna asked, more curious to see how the prince would respond rather than any desire to disobey his wished.

"Then I would have to kill you," Caiellis replied evenly, looking her straight in the eyes. The Yentarian couldn't decided whether the boy was joking or not, and resolved to not push her luck. She was glad that she had allowed the prince to help her, as there was no way Jenna would have been able to find that much information in the amount of time she had.

"How does each Summoning get recorded? Obviously the Codex is barely ever looked at, but all the entries are in so much detail," Jenna inquired as she made notes on the Lucaelian wisp and Goldenglow Moth, two of the least powerful Summonings used by those with only minimal magical potential that reminded her of the sprites of her home island.

"Each city has their own copy of the book that the Hierarch has direct access to – they each have a team of observers that reports to them. Due to the enchantments that no-one truly understands any-more on each of the copies, when they are modified so too is the Codex Angelica," the teen explained, and Jenna nodded.

After a few seconds of silence, Caiellis got back up and went to fetch another book on Lucaelian culture, grabbing his own paper and a pen and compiling another set of notes for Jenna, his neat and orderly handwriting at odds with her jumbled scrawls. Another two minutes passed, the only sounds the rustling of paper and the scratching of pens, before Caiellis spoke up again.

"Do you have any siblings?" he asked, his mind drawn back to what had made him come to the library in the first place. Jenna snickered, and replied: "Yeah, a little sister. Her name is Annia. Why?"

"Do you ever feel like you are butting in on her privacy, or making big deals out of things that she wants to keep quiet?" Cai mused, blatantly ignoring the question which made Jenna smirk. The prince could be quite stubborn if he wanted to be.

"I didn't really feel that way, but to be honest, I never asked her," Jenna said, and then sniggered, "Maybe you can ask her?"

"What? How?" the boy responded, confusion clouding his features.

"As she was born in the year of 1235, she will be in the same year as you in the Scholaria Magnus," noticing the prince's uncertainty not lifting, and his quizzical expression remaining, she continued: "You know? The new school for 15 to 18 year olds from each faction, set up to provide greater understanding of other cultures and magic itself? You and your brother will be going there in a few days."

"Wait, 15 to 18? I'm thirteen years old, born in 1237. I don't fit into that age group," Caiellis stated, and then chuckled quietly, "Although I am a prince. Let me guess: my father used his influence to secure a place for me?"

"That's correct," Jenna admitted, noticing Caiellis's sullen demeanour and saying: "He was probably going to tell you soon,"

"I suppose," the boy replied, "Is that why-"

Caiellis instantly became quiet as he turned around to get more paper, and Jenna sensed a large change overcome the prince. His eyes became blank and his shoulders slumped, so Jenna also craned her neck to see what was wrong.

"My lord," she said, falling to her knees and not meeting the gaze of the figure about ten metres away from them.

"Miss Bylae," the king responded, nodding in the direction of the researcher, and then looked at his son.

"Caiellis."

.*.*.*.

Kaled staggered through the doorway into his house – the day had been long and tiring, numerous battles in the bloodsport arena underneath the malevolent red eye of the sun sapping his energy. The lean fifteen year old only participated in some of the minor battles against weak Unbound creatures, just as a way to gain more income. He was relatively tall and tanned, with brown eyes and a short scar above his left eyes, a childhood wound from his life out on the streets.

His ma had railed against the notion of him fighting in the arenas at first, but she had relented when the taxes increased and Kaled proved he could easily defeat some of the minor captured Unbound. The big money was only gained fighting against some greater creatures or other humans, but Kaled's ma had forbidden him from doing that. It was the least he could do after all she had done for him.

He slumped on the ragged but comfortable sofa at the side of the room, flicking through the newspaper – most of the articles were advertisements, but one of the pages caught his eye: the Scholaria Magnus, a school for the most powerful young mages in each faction.

He read to the bottom of the page, his intrigue piqued until he read the price that Welkas charged its citizens for the placement there. It was the same price as the recently raised taxes – that meant that only the extremely rich – the corrupt - could afford to send their children there, as the rest of the people were barely able to even pay the taxes and feed their families at the same time.

It was unusual for his ma to be out, but Kaled supposed that she had gone to pay up on their debt when the newly acquired funds from his victories had been delivered. The aged woman wasn't actually his mother, but had taken him in off the streets when he was seven years old. She had insisted that he go to school, even though him being there put extra economical strain onto her, but when his Summoning had activated he felt it would be a waste and unfair not to use that to get them more money.

The capital of Welkas, Usnaan, had once been a paradise of freedom ruled over by the famed revolutionary Jarred Redhand, a place of individuality and expression of oneself. That had changed around twenty years ago, when the man's wife and two daughters had been slain in an assassination attempt. The Protector of the city then locked himself away from the public, forever residing in his mansion.

Without the controlling influence of the Protector restricting their activities, the Orders of Passion went wild, ruling the New Empire as they saw fit and participating in even greater acts of deprivation and greed. For those not part of the Orders and not wealthy, life was hell as the Orders raised and raised the taxes to gain more and more money – ironically becoming the things that the revolution had set out to destroy.

Kaled would love to get away from the degrading Welkas Empire, go to this Scholaria Magnus, but there was absolutely no way him and his ma could amass enough money for that without skipping the taxes – and that would attract the attention of the Order Enforcers, a sadistic bunch of people delighting in causing cruelty to the common public.

The boy heard the door creak open and then became closed, and Kaled went to see his ma who had entered the kitchen. The old woman looked weary, but quickly hid those emotions when her "son" walked into the small room. She gave him a smile, noticing how he slightly favoured his right leg – he must have suffered a minor wound at the bloodsport arena.

"Hey ma," the boy greeted her with a hug, careful not to make the smaller woman's arthritis any worse or cause her any pain. Kaled let go of her and she smiled again, taking the boy's appearance in – she was so proud of him, to think he had grown up from the little street urchin into this compassionate and handsome young man. It almost made her regret what she had done in the city today, how she wouldn't see him any-more. _No!_ She thought, shoving the selfish ideas from her head, _Stop thinking about yourself. You made the right choice. __You made the right choice. _She repeated in her head.

"Ma, are you alright?" Kaled asked, his voice becoming tinted with concern as the elderly woman wiped her eyes.

"Kaled, I love you."

"I love you too ma." the boy replied, his confusion evident as she placed a piece of paper in his hands. He brought it up to look, and his eyes widened. A place at the Scholaria Magnus! Kaled could finally get away from Welkas, finally get away from the corruption and the poverty. But that meant-

"Ma, no! You haven't paid the taxes, have you?" Kaled realised in horror, handing the parchment back to the woman. He looked at the clock and realised that it was only three minutes until the Enforcers were dispatched to the houses of those who had not paid up. The Order of Wealth was notorious for the brutality and maliciousness of their Enforcers, and the boy had often heard the screaming of those dragged out of their homes and sent to the bloodsport arenas for the night-time slaughters if they were strong and entertaining enough. If not, they would be tortured by pain-artisans from the Order of Rapture. He shouted in panic: "The Enforcers will be here soon! We have to get away!"

"No," she declared, her voice shaky but filled with a steely determination.

"So we fight then! I'll use Regata. I won't let them take you!" Kaled yelled, his voice becoming more and more desperate as the woman put a calming hand on his shoulder. While his Summoning wasn't the most powerful, far from it, Regata barely required any mana to Summon, and was very fast and efficient. The fact that the elemental was easy to Summon made it easier to interact with, and Regata responded to his rage, letting out a roar in Kaled's mind.

"No, Kaled. This is my choice. My life for your future," she said calmly, leaning up and kissing the boy on the cheek. She had made the decision to save her son from the horrors of life in Usnaan, and she would damn well not let his recklessness spoil that. "They won't hurt you. Make a better life for yourself."

"But ma, they'll torture you!" Kaled pleaded, tears beginning to roll down his cheeks, "We can fight!"

"And do what exactly? I would be useless in a fight, and you would ruin your future," she admonished. It would be hard for Kaled, heck, it was almost impossible for her to face the fact of never seeing her son again. "Anyway, I already have one foot in the grave. Kaled, I want you to have a better life than the one I could give you."

"How touching!" a rasping voice cackled, and both humans spun around to find a spiked, crimson red creature perched on the open window. The devil giggled maniacally and scampered away, and a loud bang resounded out through the house. Kaled's heart started to pound and adrenaline rushed through his veins as the door was kicked open, and two figures strode in.

The first was a large man in unadorned black clothing that covered the entirety of his body, with a matching ebony helm to boot. He held a barbed whip coiled in one hand and a pair of handcuffs in the other. Then the second man pounced in, laughing madly when he saw the two terrified residents of the house. He was mostly bare fleshed, with a loincloth covering his genitals and chains wrapped around his emancipated upper body. The devil sat on his shoulder, grinning maliciously.

He wore a ragged mask of cloth that twisted his face into a smile, and his right hand was covered in a piece of equipment adorned with slicing blades and spikes. He cackled insanely like his Summoning, running the blades down his bare chest and shuddering in the pain. He locked eyes with Kaled and licked his lips, a gesture that repulsed the teenager.

"Elsa Denith, you have failed to pay the last two deposits needed by the Empire of Welkas," the voice of the first Enforcer rang out, a monotonous drone bereft of any emotion. "Suffer the consequences."

The second Enforcer moved towards Kaled, who yelled in rage and Summoned Regata, the blazing fire-cat slamming into the deranged human and knocking him into the walls, singeing his flesh and biting into his shoulder. The devil whimpered and crawled away from him, as the first Enforcer's whip cracked out, wrapping around Kaled and yanking him closer.

"Wait!" cried Elsa, pulling out the document and thrusting it at the man. "He is going to be a student of Scholaria Magnus. You can't hurt him!"

The Enforcer calmly checked the identification code on the bottom, and, satisfied it was authentic, pulled out a needle and injected Kaled in the shoulder. The numbing agent acted immediately, blocking the mana passageways and making the boy stagger. Regata let out a roar of fury as it was dragged back into Kaled, the boy unable to sustain the Summoning as he slipped further and further into unconsciousness. The fire-cat tore out a huge chunk of meat out of the freak's shoulder, who bounded forwards and kicked Kaled in the stomach.

The boy barely felt the pain – he couldn't move, the drug was trying to force him into unconsciousness but he fought it with every inch of his willpower. He had to help his ma!

The black-clad Enforcer punched his colleague in the face, shouting: "Do not touch the boy! He is now a representative of the Empire." The second Enforcer made a pouting face, completely oblivious to the wounds in his shoulder, and the other one said, "The woman, however..."

As Kaled's vision faded, the last thing he saw the freak giggle and move towards his ma, who stood up straight and made ready to meet her fate.

_This is it then,_ Elsa thought. _At least Kaled can't watch._

.*.*.*.

King Marik strode quickly towards the library, his mind playing over Alexander's words in his head. Maybe he had been too harsh of Caiellis, but the boy needed to realise that if he became king, failure would not just have a negative impact upon him, but the entire kingdom. Caiellis had always reminded Marik more of Emili, whereas Alex was physically more like himself. However, his youngest son had undoubtedly inherited much of his father's quiet personality, while his eldest was more extroverted like his late wife.

Lost in his thoughts, the king almost didn't realise when he reached the entrance to the library. He took a deep breath, ruling the kingdom of Lucael was one thing, but he found it infinitely harder to interact with his own children. He supposed that he had endured the wrath of his eldest, but that had been more about listening to him.

Talking to Caiellis would require him to take the initiative, if what Alexander said was true – Marik had no cause to doubt his eldest son, as the boy had basically raised his younger brother as they went from safe-house to safe-house, and then eventually went to stay in the palace once it had been deemed safe.

He walked into the library, and saw his son conversing with the Yentarian researcher – Jenna Bylae, if her recalled her name correctly – laughing and chatting happily. It seemed paradoxical to the king that his son was here talking openly with a complete stranger while he hid things from his own family. Caiellis turned around to get more paper, and Marik felt a pang of regret as his son's casual demeanour instantly transformed into one of cautious quiet when he caught sight of his father.

Jenna spun around and instantly dropped to her knees, which made Marik smirk, although he soon hid it under Caiellis's blank stare.

"My lord," she said, and the king replied: "Miss Bylae. Caiellis."

The boy said nothing and regarded his father coldly – his armour was battle damaged, which was nothing new, but there were new scorch marks there. Just what had Alexander done? Caiellis certainly appreciated his brother's protectiveness and nurturing qualities, but sometimes he wished the older boy would just leave him alone and not make every one of Cai's problems one of his. Although he tried to appear blank-eyed (it was the best way of getting his family to go away), Caiellis couldn't quite keep an accusatory glint out of his green eyes as he related the fact that Alex had attacked their father with the probably counter-attack of the king.

Marik picked up on that instantly, regretting his haste to speak to his youngest and not changing his clothes on the way. The boy was quite observant, another trait that he had inherited from his father. The forty year old then said, "My apologies, Miss Bylae, but me and my son need to talk. Caiellis, will you join me for a walk?"

Knowing that the request wasn't one at all, the boy slid off his seat and muttered an invocation, the book in front of the two disappearing into particles of golden light. Marik realised with a jolt that they had been looking at the Codex Angelica, although he doubted that his son was stupid enough to allow Jenna to look at anything classified – anyway, Caiellis wouldn't have the full clearance to look at the entire book, so there was that. The boy silently made his way over to the king, not even saying a word of goodbye to the researcher, who sighed and continued on with her work. She had got a good deal of information from that book, so was grateful for the encounter.

Marik paced out of the library, intending to go to the royal sanctum and show his son something there. Caiellis trotted dutifully at his side, waiting for his father to start the conversation he knew was coming.

"I wasn't aware you knew how to access the Codex," Marik voiced, trying to make small talk before he announced the main news.

"Hierarch Tybalt taught me and Alex the spell when we were both attempting out Summonings a few years ago," the boy replied, his soft voice deadpan. _Shit_. That topic came up far too quickly, Marik had wanted a bit of bonding time with his son before discussing that.

"Ah, I see." After a few seconds, he added, "I know that you try extremely hard to pass the test, Caiellis, and I am proud of you for that, but we both know that you need to pass it soon. Which I am confident you will, I am looking forward to seeing your Summoning,"

"You certainly sound confident," the boy muttered under his breath, and then blinked in surprise. He hadn't meant to actually voice the thoughts. Maybe it was the effect of talking to his father for once.

"And why shouldn't I be?" Marik asked, making to put his arm round his son's thin shoulders but stopping when the smaller male shied away from the contact. "Every time you do it, the easier it gets."

"And why is that?" Caiellis narrowed his eyes at his father, who gave him a bewildered look.

"Because the more you do the test your Summoning has set, the more used to it you become. It is the same test each time."

"No. It is not," Caiellis stated simply, and Marik raised his eyebrows incredulously as his son continued,: "It is a different trial each time. Sometimes I feel like I have almost completed it, sometimes I fail on the first hurdle. Why, is it supposed to be identical each time?"

"Yes," the king, murmured. He had never heard of that occurring before. He would look into it himself – some of the records in the Codex Angelica would speak of the phenomenon, he was sure of it. "So that is why you have found it so difficult to Summon?"

_You think? _Caiellis thought, ensuring that the sarcasm was kept to himself this time.

"However, I have decided that currently I am incapable of performing my fatherly duties, so I have managed to get a place for you both a the newly built Scholaria Magnus, a school for 15 to 18 year olds, though I was able to get you in. I think it will be a great opportunity for you and your brother," Marik announced proudly, thinking that his son would receive the news gratefully. Caiellis didn't reply or react in any way to the announcement, he simply continued to walk behind his father.

Annoyed at the lack of response, Marik raised his voice: "Well?"

"I am aware," the boy uttered, which incensed the man even further.

"I am trying to be patient with you, Caiellis. Would you prefer it if I shouted at you?" the king questioned, and his son looked him straight in the eyes, annoyance prevalent in those green orbs.

"I would prefer it if you stopped talking to me, but that's not going to happen, is it?" Cai shot back, and Marik growled. He swung a punch at the small boy, but managed to restrain himself, his mailed fist millimetres from the Black Sun on Caiellis's cheek. To his credit, the boy didn't even flinch, persisting in glaring defiantly at his father. Marik exhaled deeply. This is not how he wanted the father/son moment to go. He was glad that he had enough self-control to not hit the boy, no matter how insolent Caiellis had been – Marik was already close enough to losing his youngest in the conversation, Caiellis's obedience the only thing keeping him at his father's side.

Marik lowered his hand and instead brought Caiellis into a crushing hug, lifting his son off his feet and crying: "Angels deliver me from impertinent children!" That got him a smirk from Cai, which was a victory as far as the king was concerned. Not wanting the intimate moment to end, much to his son's chagrin Marik decided to carry him the rest of the way to the sanctum. Alexander was right – the boy was incredibly light, Marik could lift him with only one arm. Only the king had admittance to the sanctum, and he noticed how his son's eyes widened as he was carried into the vault.

Caiellis was awed by the amount of relics on display, he was surprised that his father trusted him enough already to take him down here. He recognised quite a few objects from stories his brother had read to him when he was younger, artefacts that he had dismissed as being myths, although Cai assumed that their powers had been exaggerated. Had this happened even a single year earlier, he would have rattled off his recollection of all the names and properties of the relics, but for now he kept silent.

Marik could sense his son's wonder breaking out of the carapace he had constructed for himself – he was positive he had made the right choice doing this. He could visualise Tybalt's prideful smile as he read out some of the pieces of work Caiellis had written in the past.

Despite the fact that both his sons were smart and if Alexander applied himself more to written studies he could also achieve great things, the younger brother was immensely intelligent, though the older still had more experience. Caiellis's fascination with knowledge and his way of thinking would be a great asset to him in the future – Tybalt had once joked that the boy could have been a Yentarian before Marik told him that it was demeaning to be compared to one of them. He found it quite ironic how the only part of the conversation he paid attention to was the end, and wished he had been less obsessed about the war with Johnias and listened more to his sons' mental progress.

He had taken note of what Tristram had told him about their physical training however – Alex was exceptional at hand-to-hand combat and most types of weaponry, whilst Cai couldn't even lift some of the heavier equipment, instead focussing on one-handed sword training. Marik also listened to their magical progression, which Caiellis also excelled in. Alexander preferred to blend physical and magical attacks with Aurelia, whereas his little brother had huge amounts of magical energy even without unlocking his own Summoning – he had similar levels of power to many mages with their own Sancturia creatures backing them up.

The king thought it was disturbing that he could reel off a list of each of his sons' specialities in combat and warfare, but could barely say anything about either of their personalities.

When the war had finished, the artefacts used in war had been returned to the vault – he was ashamed to say that in his rage he had obliterated the cities allied to his treacherous brother with semi-forbidden relics of the past. Nevertheless, the one he was going to show to his son was powerful, but not _that _powerful.

They stopped at the fifteenth alcove and Marik put down Caiellis, who instantly examined the object in front of him. The medium-length and thin sword had a straight blade in a scabbard made from black leather inlaid with silver etchings. The sword had a semi-circular cross-guard of shiny silver, and the pommel surrounded a small crystal.

"The Sword of Glass," Caiellis breathed in wonderment, correctly identifying the blade from just a brief depiction of it in one of the "storybooks" (books that Alexander stole from the library to read to Caiellis, he adapted the historical accounts of them into stories). "Used primarily by Queen Arie in the years 831 to 837, after she had her artisans craft it from glass found in the church of the capital city in the Drenure Kingdom before they were taken over. Said to amplify the magic of the wielder, it made the Queen's tricolour White/Blue/Green mana even more powerful,"

"Very good," Marik nodded proudly, amazed that his son had managed to recall such a comprehensive definition from the wealth of information in his young mind. "I want you to have it. Consider it a father's gift, to show that I do actually love you."

The king smiled lovingly when he heard Caiellis's stifled gasp of amazement and fondly ruffled the boy's brown hair. This time, his son did not move away from the contact out of antipathy, but instead he was excited to get out the blade. He moved towards to sword, before turning around, a plea for conformation in his eyes. Marik nodded, and Caiellis said: "Thank you."

He drew the sword from its plinth – the blade was made from a crystal-clear substance that was as sharp and reliable as metal, but far more beautiful - and gave it a few practise swings. It was perfectly balanced for his small frame – Queen Arie was quite a petite woman, although she had reputedly more than made up for that with her boisterous nature.

Caiellis then charged the blade with his magic, and grinned in slightly childish delight when it lit up with white/golden light, bathing the two in a glow. Neither one failed to notice the fact that the edges of the blade were tinted with shadow, which was only natural – the Angel of the Black Sun was made from light and darkness, which had allowed King Xarius to begin his reign of terror. Marik hoped that his son could overcome the fear of the people and prove that it was the man that was evil, not the angel, but right now he pushed the maudlin thoughts from his mind and revelled in his son's happiness.

He had missed out on a huge amount of his sons' life going to war against his brother. Marik almost regretted sending Alex and Cai away to the Scholaria Magnus, but such an opportunity could not be wasted. The king sighed, knowing that he would have to become strict father again until Caiellis achieved his Summoning, but at least maybe the boy's self-esteem had been restored a bit more now.

* * *

><p>New Summonings in this chapter:<p>

Kaled Denith: Regathan Firecat

Enforcer 2: Rakdos Cackler


	5. Departures

Caiellis swung the inactive Sword of Glass in a wide arc, a feint designed to draw out a block from Guardian Tristram, whom he currently duelled against. After receiving his father's gift, the boy had partaken in a long, relaxing shower, which had helped to ease the pain of his cuts. The king had made him promise to stop doing that, and although simply giving Caiellis a present didn't yet make the man the perfect dad in the prince's eyes, he decided to indulge him on this.

Tristram grinned at the boy's tactics, moving the axe in sideways to block while keeping an eye out for the coming second strike. To this end, he wasn't going to put full power into the block to allow him to react to the second blow faster. The two were duelling to help the youngest Lucerna practise with his physical combat abilities now he had acquired the relic blade – magic was forbidden in this test, and the Guardian wasn't entirely sure he would be able to defeat Caiellis if it wasn't, despite having access to Athela, the Aegis Angel. However, since they weren't using spells, if worst came to worst he could simply brute-force the small boy into defeat.

Alexander watched intently from the sidelines – he was supposed to be completing the task given to the brothers by Hierarch Tybalt, which was to research the other kingdoms in preparation for their departure to the Scholaria Magnus, but he was far more interested in observing Cai fighting. He was glad that the eldest and youngest living Lucernans had spent time bonding, and that their father had given the boy the Sword of Glass. The weapon matched his little brother perfectly, complementing his dynamic and magic-based fighting style. They had already been duelling for five minutes, and Alex could see that his brother was tiring.

Realising that the Guardian would have figured out his plan, Caiellis instead continued to cleave downwards onto the axe with his sword. Tristram grunted at the prince's sudden change of plans, but the boy had over-extended himself. He shoved the sword back with the haft of his axe and continued pushing forwards, overpowering Cai and knocking him backwards onto the ground. He couldn't remove the sword or Tristram's weapon would "slice" into him before he could roll away, and he wouldn't be able to last much longer by attempting to fight against the man's greater strength.

Grimacing, the boy quickly slid out his sword from under the axe and jolted back, barely dodging his opponent's swing. He bit back a yelp of pain as an armoured foot pressed into his right forearm, preventing him from bringing his blade to bear. Tristram placed the blade of his axe at the boy's thin neck, trying to only put enough pressure on his foot to prevent Cai from moving the arm, and not cause him pain.

"Surrender?" he smiled, relatively impressed with how Caiellis wielded his new weapon. The boy grunted stubbornly and tried to move his arm, succeeding in inching the limb sideways, and Tristram put a bit more weight on his leg to give the prince a harder time moving. Caiellis tried to stifle a cry as the pressure on his arm increased, but only ended up making it sound more pained. He blinked back the tears, determined to not let them see him as weak, and was about to submit when a voice shouted:

"Get off him! You're hurting him!" A form barrelled into Tristram, knocking the Guardian off his feet with the unexpected attack. He slammed into the ground, smashing the air from his lungs but still keeping a hold of his axe due to his combat training – dropping his weapon in a fight could lead to the death of his king.

"Alex! What are you doing?" Caiellis yelled, as he got to his feet, his older brother stood protectively in front of him. _Crap,_ thought Alexander. He hadn't meant to hurt Tristram, he only meant to stop him from causing his brother more pain. He had overreacted then, just like he had overreacted earlier when he discovered Cai's self harming. The middle Lucerna had an extremely high pain tolerance for both physical and emotional distress, but if there was one thing that he couldn't stand it was to see his baby brother in pain. He had seen the hurt clearly in Caiellis, and before he could think he had already intervened.

"Tristram! Are you alright?" the boy asked in concern, ignoring his brother's indignant expression and moving forward, extending his hand to help the Guardian up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit winded. Though I didn't expect an attack from the sides", the boys' combat mentor laughed as Alex went bright red and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He then switched his gaze to his youngest student, and changed his jovial tone to one of soft admonition, "Caiellis, you need to surrender if you are in pain. I don't mean to hurt you, but you are more fragile than your brother."

"Yes, Uncle Tristram, I know," the boy rolled his eyes, "I was going to before idiot here barged in."

"Hey, jerk, I was just trying to protect you," Alex grinned and pulled his brother over, pulling down the sleeve of his right arm and looking at the purple bruise that had started to form. Caiellis sighed at his brother's ministrations but didn't pull away, and Tristram smiled at the two boys.

Having no children of his own, the Guardian considered the royal brothers as sons after the years of their lives spent moving between safe-houses when the palace had been breached nine years ago. He knew that Marik blamed himself for Emili's death, as the queen had wanted to take their children to her parents in Scientia Mos, but the king had insisted the palace was much safer. He had soon changed his opinion as a group of demon-assassins sent by his brother and masquerading as royal staff murdered his wife and almost killed his children.

He sent the Hierarch and Guardian with his boys and evacuated them out of the city, where they lived in different cities until they came under attack. Although at first Tybalt and Tristram despised each other, they had formed a bond out of caring for the king's children. Now the ancient Hierarch and comparatively youthful (although he wasn't really any more) Guardian were close friends, an unlikely pair.

Tristram was reminded of those dark days in the civil war where the boys' physical training had come down to him, while the Hierarch focussed on the mental improvements. Alexander had been extremely eager in his training sessions, throwing himself into every gruelling exercise with youthful enthusiasm. However, the younger brother had hated the Guardian, much preferring to learn about the world with "Uncle" Tybalt rather than practise swordplay or run laps in the cold. The youngest boy increased his resentment of Tristram after the man gave an over-eager Alexander a black eye after a wrestling session, but when he had saved Caiellis's life and single-handedly bested a squad of Johnias's agents who had been sent to murder the children and attacked Cai when he had ran off in a huff, the boy had nothing but respect for the Guardian and also graced him with the grand title of "Uncle".

He grinned fondly as they began squabbling as Alex poked Cai's bruise a bit too hard, reminded of the "good old days" when they had both been thin children. Now Alex was a tall, well-built and muscular lad, and although the younger brother would never match his older in that respect, Caiellis was becoming taller as well. He was glad that the younger boy had began to break out of his depression, and was surprised when Caiellis had challenged him to a duel.

It was easy to forget that they were still children – the oldest still couldn't legally consume alcohol and the youngest had barely breached his teenage years (Tristram suppressed a snort when he remembered that – the boy had a temper that could match any of his family). They certainly weren't spoilt, despite being the sons of the king, and their childhoods had been harder than most. They had only recently begun to live in luxury when the war finished, but the down-to-earth attitude instilled in them by their time as basically refugees meant that they didn't indulge much and would aid greatly when one of them became king.

They had a fantastic brotherly bond, and although they were extremely close Tristram had often been forced to break up heated disputes of name calling or wrestling (which always ended badly for the younger brother) or tend to wounds the boys had caused each other.

His reverie was interrupted when King Marik himself strode confidently into the room, eyeing his boys who immediately stopped their play-fighting.

"Sorry to spoil your fun, but Tristram and I need to discuss force dispositions and training," the king said, and on the spur of the moment swept up both his children in a hug. Alex gratefully reciprocated the gesture, happy that his dad was paying attention to them, which left the unwilling Caiellis crushed in the middle.

"I trust you are prepared for your departure tonight?" Marik inquired, and was met with a pair of surprised glances.

"Tonight? What?" Caiellis exclaimed incredulously, "You said the term started in a few days," and then realisation clicked in his mind, "Of course! The monorail has to stop at each city, and then since the Scholaria Magnus is located on a neutral island, the travel time will be increased as it will have to be on boat."

"Well shit!" Alexander cried, and then at a stern glance from Tristram, "Sorry, darn. We'd best get going then. Race you to our rooms!"

Alexander shot off, leaving Caiellis who sighed in a way that would better fit a person forty years older. He knew that he would never win in a race against his much taller brother, and didn't feel that it would be appear very mature in front of his father.

"You're going to lose if you just stand there," Tristram sniggered, and the youngest Lucerna gave him a very pointed glare. The guardian winked back, and Caiellis set off at a deliberately measured pace. He had no intention of going to the rooms, he had already packed his clothing after he left the shower. In fact he was heading back to the library – he needed to get some books on what the Lucaelians knew about the other factions so that he could better interact with them. He also knew that despite the fact that Uncle Tybalt had specifically told Alex to do as he was now doing, his older brother would forget.

Marik watched his sons go and turned towards Tristram. There was something he needed to say before they talked about army things, something he should have said a long time ago.

"Thank you-" he began to say, when the Guardian waved a placating hand.

"Save it, my lord," Tristram grinned, "I was just doing my duty to the royal family."

"You and old Tybalt raised them better than I could ever have done," Marik uttered softly, regretting every second of the civil war in that one moment.

"That doesn't change the fact that they need you, their father now. Especially Caiellis. He needs your support with his Summoning, instead of your censure," Tristram replied, and Marik was glad that his battle-brother was always so open with him – most people were understandably reserved around the king, but his closest advisers never pulled punches because of his rank.

.*.*.*.

"Ma! Ma!" Kaled screamed, as the woman talking to him was ripped open in an explosion of gore, her loving face replaced with a cackling devil with a smile that stretched too far across its face. He shouted in rage as the devil imitated his ma's kind words in a mocking force, and tried to swing at it, but felt firm hands holding him down. "Kid! Kid! Wake up!" a man's voice shouted, and Kaled sighed with relief. It was just a dream. It was all just a dream – except it wasn't. His ma was still dead or worse.

His eyes opened and a hard-faced woman wearing black armour with a red glove around her right hand held him down, regarding him coldly. Kaled looked around, he was in the back of a moving vehicle, sat on cushioned seats with the woman on top of him. A voice came from the driver's compartment, tinted with concern: "Is he alright now?"

"I don't know. Are you?" the woman questioned as tears began to fall out of his eyes. She repeated the question and Kaled nodded, wiping them away.

"Don't be so harsh, Messa," the man scolded softly, and the woman scowled and moved off the boy. "Don't worry, kid. My name is Degan, and you're currently on the way to the Scholaria Magnus."

"I expected Enforcers to be taking me," Kaled mumbled, trying not to cry even more at his ma's sacrifice – she wouldn't want him to be sad about it, and the man laughed, "We are Enforcers, kid. But not part of the Orders. The original Enforcers."

"What Degan is trying to say is that we are part of the Ja'an Guard, the last remnants of the system introduced by Jarred after the Revolution's victory," Messa explained, and Kaled noticed that she looked a lot prettier when she wasn't scowling. She narrowed her eyes at his staring and the teenager blushed profusely, turning away in embarrassment and looking out of the window. He noticed that the car he was in was one of a large group, and if he craned his neck he could see city gates in the distance behind them. It was almost night-time, the sun finally diverting its gaze away from Welkas.

"The other cars are also holding new students of the Scholaria," Messa hissed, and Kaled could clearly perceive the resentment in her tone.

"Though we have to take them, wouldn't want the other nations know how corrupt Welkas as become," Degan added sarcastically, and noticing Kaled's confused look from his rear-view mirror, he said: "As Ja'an is the city controlled the least by the Orders, they have decided that Enforcers from there would transport the spoilt brats to the school so that other factions don't become suspicious of the New Empire, although only the Yentarians would really care."

"Though you aren't a spoiled brat, are you?" Messa asked, and Kaled slumped.

"No," he responded simply, wishing he could have done more to protect his ma.

Degan coughed loudly and Messa nodded – the two had earlier agreed not to bring up the topic of Kaled Denith's adoptive mother, and the way the conversation was going could easily go in that direction.

"It's going to be a long journey," Degan mused idly, "When we get to the coast in the west we will get onto a boat. The school is located on an isolated island to prevent any faction from doing claiming the territory or threatening the students."

.*.*.*.

Caiellis paced slowly through the darkness of Capitalia Lux – he had managed to convince Alex to let him walk alone, but his brother still insisted that he take Caiellis's luggage and books on board the monorail with him. Cai knew better than to object to more than one thing at once, so meandered through the city unobstructed by possessions, apart from the relic blade that was sheathed at his waist.

It was late evening, although there was no difference in the perpetual darkness, and the lights lit by the citizens of the metropolis were like pinpricks. He didn't exactly know why he had wanted to walk alone, but just felt like he needed to absorb the city one last time before he left.

It was a beautiful city – maybe not as majestic as the Court of Oaks in Eria, or as stunning as the Sapphire Citadel of the League of Uveria, but the baroque and gothic architecture standing defiantly in the face of the abyss was a wonder in its own right.

Caiellis reasoned that he was more than a little biased, having never actually been to any of these other locations and he was born in the palace of Capitalia Lux, but this city had always had a special place in his heart. It was little known fact that despite people living in relatively close quarters to one another (although the metropolises were large enough to prevent overcrowding), the Lucaelians had the smallest crime rate out of all the factions. This was because it was bred into them that to survive in the darkness, they needed to work together and respect the structures of order that had let them survive through the ages.

The boy was in a large plaza full of bustling civilians indulging in the winter markets of the first month of 1251. He shivered and pulled his scarf further up his face – to block out the cold and to prevent people from recognising him. When Cai turned around, he could clearly see the two largest structures in the capital city: the imposing palace was all hard stone on the outside and wider than its counterpart, the Cathedral of Salvation, one of the many churches in the Lucaelian realm. The tall building had a huge array of stained glass windows that reflected the light from inside, and was topped by a statue of Matalis Ortus Lucerna, the first king and Caiellis's distant ancestor. The sculpture extended further upwards into an abstract rendition of Matalis's Summoning, the unnamed First Angel.

Thousands of Lucaelians went into the cathedral every day to pray, and Hierarch Tybalt was in charge of the church – the role had been his for many years in the past, when he let his protégé step in when he became too old for the role, and instead became a teacher for the king's first child, and then also his second. However, when the new Hierarch had been murdered in the civil war by the Arch-Heretic Johnias himself, Tybalt stepped back into the role, which the ancient man would do until he died.

Caiellis found it strange that even though he had been taught about the angel-worshipping religion, he didn't actually believe in it himself – he thought it must have been the by-product of actually being able to call upon an angel, especially one of the First Sisterhood. These angels were far more powerful than those of subsequent Sisterhoods, and would only appear to those of the Lucerna line. The angel Summonings of other prominent Lucaelian figures were said to be far less powerful, according to Tybalt, who could himself call upon the aid of a Second Sisterhood angel, the wise Bruna, Light of Alabaster. The fact that he didn't worship angels must also have been because the royal family were treated with almost the same reverence.

He made to leave the plaza – the train would be departing soon, and although the driver would not leave without the prince Cai didn't want to be the cause of a delay – when a young voice called out: "Mummy, look! It's the pwince!"

Caiellis froze, hoping the parents of the child would simply dismiss the girl as having a vivid imagination, and soon realised that he would be appear more inconspicuous if he just kept moving, instead of suddenly stopping. He knew that he had corrected the mistake too late when a woman cried: "My lord!"

The boy wondered what had given him away – he wasn't wearing anything emblazoned with the Lucernan Crest, and his scarf hid the Black Sun on his cheek from onlookers. Maybe it was the sheathed sword at his waist, but Caiellis was small enough that it would have been hard to pick out in the crowded plaza.

He gulped and turned around to see a woman holding a small child's hand begin to fall to her knees. At the sight of the woman doing so, a few other citizens copied the act, which was a catalyst for everyone in the plaza to begin doing it. Soon he was the only one stood up, and a sea of kneeling figures surrounded him throughout the plaza.

Cai's heart started beating faster. What was he supposed to say? Everywhere he looked, expectant faces smiled back. There were no shadows he could slink into in the plaza – he had already been recognised tonight, but had blended into the shadows before the person could verify that it was truly him. If there was one thing that years spent on the run from Johnias's hunter-demons had taught him, it was how to hide. Now that skill was useless.

The boy started to breath faster, inhaling and exhaling at a steadily increasing rate as he realised that he had no idea what to do. What had he done to deserve this admiration, this respect? What could he say to these people that would live up to their picture of him? What was he supposed to do?

Caiellis stood rigid, panic making it harder to breathe as he fully took in the amount of people in the square – it must have been hundreds. He wanted to scream, or lash out and blast these people away from him, but he managed to control himself in that respect. Cai had been taught how to deal with these situations before, many of his lessons with Uncle Tybalt revolving around this, but he wasn't ready, and any words he tried to grasp slid out of his mind. He barely realised that he had started to hyperventilate, but not to the extent that the people around him would notice.

After what felt like years, but was actually seconds, a voice called out to him. The familiar sound broke through the barriers of mental paralysis, and Cai looked to see Alexander walking quickly towards him, the older boy coming to his rescue as the crowd parted to allow the other prince through.

"Citizens of Capitalia Lux, please stand," Alexander bellowed as he made his way to the stricken Caiellis's side, putting on a stony face and imitating his father's voice in an exaggerated manner – the display of humour was not lost on the crowd, some of which laughed or stifled sniggers as the people rose to their feet.

"It seems the cold has stolen my brother's tongue," he said, amplifying his voice so that it carried to everyone in the plaza wrapping a protective arm around his brother's painfully thin shoulders. Caiellis wasn't listening to what he was saying, he was just immensely relieved that once again Alex had been there to bail him out. Despite the fact that he tried to not rely on the older boy as much, Cai wanted to just bury his head in his big brother's side like he used to when he was scared and let Alex protect him and take him away from the fear, but thought that would look pathetic, so instead stood still.

"So I'll have to fill in for him. I hope none of you are disappointed if you wanted Cai, but now at least you can have his handsome and attractive big brother," Alex flashed a charming smile which had often got him the attention of girls from noble families, and even though King Marik had forbidden him from having a partner until he was 18, he often liked to push those boundaries. More laughter erupted from the crowd, and the middle Lucerna finished off his short speech.

"Please, carry on with your celebrations. Don't let us interrupt you."

And with that, the people turned to one another and began chattering excitedly – not many of them had seen either one of the king's sons in the past month, but their story of survival in the civil war was a well known one. Alex winked at the few citizens still watching him and then turned to his little brother, whose gaunt face was becoming streaked with tears.

"Hey, short stuff, what's wrong?" he soothed, looping his other arm behind Cai's knees, lifting the boy off his feet and squeezing tightly with his hand on the boy's shoulders.

"You...You are always here for me. You always know what to say," his younger brother sobbed, before pushing his head into Alexander's chest, who gave him a patented smile. Caiellis then extricated himself from his older brother, his eyes still slightly puffy, and pushed the larger boy away, suddenly self-conscious.

Alex gave his brother some space – he had been looking for Cai, not content to just simply sit in the carriage and wait with his two friends with every second of his brother not being there a second he could have been hurt. He did realise that he would have to get used to that sort of feeling, as his brother would be in a completely different year to him at the Scholaria, and if his father hadn't said anything about the brothers sharing a room to the patrons, it would be very unlikely that they would do so.

He had seen his little brother surrounded by the kneeling people, sensing instantly that Caiellis had no idea of how to properly react – he was not as confident at interacting with people as Alexander, preferring to either just talk to those he knew very well or keep his thoughts to himself.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked when Cai had stood still for a few seconds, his brother clearly lost in thought and drifting off.

"I just want to do one thing," Caiellis replied, and began walking towards a woman holding a child's hand. Vaguely baffled, Alex followed closely behind as his brother slid through the crowds.

"I told you, mummy," a girl's chiding words could be heard, "I said that the pwince was coming to see us,"

"I'm sorry about Cassandra," the woman apologised profusely when she noticed the youngest Lucerna stood next to her, and her child shook her head vigorously.

"You clearly needed to be somewhere, and we stopped you. Please don't blame the girl, she is only four,"

"No, it's fine," Caiellis shook off the woman's concerns. _Four._ The age he had been when his mother had died. He gave Cassandra a smile and knelt down to the girl's height. "Cassandra, how did you know that I was the prince?"

"I saw the angel," the girl replied, and her mother added: "Cassandra has the Sight – she can see Sancturia creatures, but is not a mage herself."

"Wow, that is a cool ability," Alex exclaimed, coming to his brother's side and winking at the girl.

Cassandra looked him straight in the eyes and stated: "Your angel is pretty and nice. She is watching you" She then looked at Caiellis and added: "Your angel is asleep. You need to wake her up!"

Noticing the prince's expression harden, the mother quickly picked up her young daughter and apologised once again.

"The girl doesn't know what she is saying, please excuse her my lords."

Caiellis was going to leave when he turned around and tapped Cassandra on the forehead, which made the girl giggle and gave the mother a story to tell to her friends.

"Take good care of your mum," Cai ordered, and the girl nodded seriously as understanding clicked in the mother's head. He got back to his feet and let his brother lead him towards the station as Cassandra waved at him.

.*.*.*.

When they had arrived in the front-most transport carriage (as was their royal right), Leodred and Elizabex Montlea, twin children of General Carlis Montlea and childhood friends of Alexander before the civil war had started got up from their booth and waved the Lucernans over. Alex sat down in the seat opposite theirs and patted the space next to him for Caiellis. The boy raised his eyebrows and instead chose to sit in the booth across from theirs, which was empty.

To be more precise, the entire carriage was empty apart from the bodyguards located at each entrance – King Marik had allowed one friend for each of his children, but as Caiellis didn't have any he donated the place to Alex, who could let the twins onto the front carriage, as they were also enrolled at the Scholaria Magnus. Leo could Summon a fast attacking spirit creature known as Valour, whilst Elizabex called upon an elemental of light named Purity.

Alexander rolled his eyes at Cai's deliberate impertinence, watching as the boy opened the first page of the tome and began to take notes on a sheet of plain paper in front of him. He was about to get up and sit across from his brother when Leo slammed his hand on the table, just as the train started moving.

"Well then, shall we get this game started?" he asked excitedly, and Alex belatedly remembered promising to play in a game of cards before setting off to find his brother. The three had played the game every time the brothers returned to Capitalia Lux, and each of them had won an equal number of times – Leo wanted to be the "grand champion" he called it, by beating Alex and his sister, and the Lucerna supposed that the honour of his family was on the line in their game.

"Hey squirt, are you playing?" Leo inquired, fully aware of how much it annoyed his friend when anyone else used his nicknames for Caiellis. At first, many years ago, Alexander had been against allowing his baby brother to play with them, but at their mother's insistence he had been allowed to, and he sometimes joined in when they played it.

"I think I'll pass," Cai responded, not even looking up from his work.

"He's such a nerd, isn't he?" Alexander said loudly, and if Caiellis heard it, which there was no way he couldn't, he didn't react.

"Leo was so excited about this game," Elizabex sighed, pulling out her deck and shuffling it thoroughly, "He wouldn't shut up about how he would put that "arrogant prince" in his place."

"Is that what you call me?" Alexander laughed, and Leo raised his hands.

"It's just a nickname. Don't want you going all high and mighty about it."

The game soon started – it was based upon building a city and winning the game in one of three ways: Alex and Leo's decks were both military, while Elizabex's won through diplomacy and economy. Cai's rarely used deck won through converting the other players' cities to his religion. Alex played a very fast deck that won through sending relentless attacks of raiders before the other players built up their cities, while Leo relied more upon the crushing power of his late-game arsenal of military assets.

The boy grinned triumphantly when he recruited a phalanx of elite warriors, equipped them with enchanted metal and sent a group of Alex's bandits packing, and then gasped with indignation when his sister then bribed them onto her side.

"You can't do that!" he cried, and then noticed just how much gold Elizabex had managed to stack up while the boys had been at war with each other.

"They look better on my side anyway," she snickered as Leo growled in annoyance.

"Children, please quieten down. Some of us are trying to do work," Caiellis's reprimanding voice rang out, which made all three of them laugh and Leo stuck his middle finger out at the boy, and was met by a glare from Alexander.

"Overprotective much?" Leo joked, and his friend punched him hard on the shoulder.

"I was planning to use this against Elizabex, but since she doesn't make unnecessary comments about me and my brother, I'll use it against you instead," Alex smiled charmingly and used his sappers to destroy the walls of Leo's city, allowing his raiders to wreak havoc before they were sent back, severely weakening both players.

"Thanks Alex," Elizabex grinned as she bought out both of their cities in one fell swoop, claiming the victory for herself. She knew the boy's real reason for doing that was so that he could go see his little brother faster – had he used it against her, she would have been weakened, putting all of them on roughly the same strength level, making the game take twice as long.

"What'cha up to?" Alexander asked Cai, sauntering over to his brother's booth.

"Compiling notes about the other nations, as you should have done already," was Caiellis's reply. Alex made a face, and jeered:

"Why should I do that, when I can just take yours?" he joked and picked up the sheets of paper, holding them just out of reach. Caiellis sighed wearily and bookmarked the page he was on, turning back to the front of the book and beginning again.

"You're no fun to tease anymore," Alexander pouted, returning the notes to his brother and sitting down next to him. "Mind if I work next to you? I'll just make shorter versions of your novels."

"No need," Caiellis replied, handing his brother half of the sheets, "I wrote everything twice, so you can have a copy of the notes too."

Alexander groaned, which made his little brother chuckle, although he was surprised and grateful that Cai had done that for him. Actually, thinking about it, his younger brother always used to try and help him with his written work, so it shouldn't have been such a shock that Caiellis had done so tonight.

The door on the far side of the carriage opened, and a young waitress wearing the black and white chequered uniform of the monorail service holding a large menu walked towards them. Of course their meal order would be taken first. Alex had barely got used to the amount of privilege the brothers received when they had moved back to Capitalia Lux after the war had finished. The girl was clearly nervous about taking the princes' orders, so the middle Lucerna gave her a dazzling smile that made her blush.

She handed him the menu, filled with an extensive array of dishes – Marik had spared no expenses in making the enrolled pupils of the Scholaria have a luxurious journey.

"I'll have the Civitas Sol steak and a glass of fizzy yellow-berry, thank you," Alexander ordered, and the woman nodded, writing his order at the top of the list. He then elbowed his brother in the side and passed the menu over to him.

"I'll just have a drink of water. I'm not hungry," Caiellis murmured distractedly, so Alex butted in with: "We'll have two steaks then please."

"I just said that I don't want anything to eat," the smaller boy stated in a manner of fact way, and his big brother shook his head at the confused waitress as if sharing a private joke.

"What is your order, my lord?" she asked, unsure of what to do or which prince to listen to. Caiellis was about to respond when his brother placed a large hand around his mouth and declared: "He will have a steak like me."

"At least let me choose what I want if you're going to force me to eat!" the boy's muffled voice could be heard, and Alex removed his hand with a patronising snicker of: "Good boy."

He wasn't surprised in the slightest when his younger brother ordered the smallest dish, a light salad grown from the photo-refectories (as nutritious plant life couldn't be sustained above ground) with some rice, but it was an improvement from eating nothing. After the waitress had taken the twins' requests and left the carriage, Leo moved to the seat opposite the boys and placed a hand on Caiellis's shoulder.

"I hate to admit it, but your brother is right. You do have to eat, shortie, you're already skeletal," he admitted, and pulled his arm away at the kid's glower.

"You wouldn't think that either of them were royalty," Elizabex quipped, moving over to sit next to her brother. _Great. More people to fuss over me, _thought Cai, turning his gaze to the darkness outside the train. At his request, the monorail driver hadn't closed the shutters on that window, just in case it was sunny.

After their meal, Elizabex and Leo moved back to their booth, the girl realising that Alexander wanted some time with his baby brother.

Caiellis turned to him with his puppy eyes, and Alex suddenly realised how handsome his brother was becoming – his childhood cuteness was still there, but when he got a bit older Cai would be devilishly attractive, maybe even matching his older brother.

"Thanks. For everything today," the boy muttered awkwardly, and Alex chuckled quietly, reaching out to wrap his brother in a headlock and give him a noogie.

"Don't sweat it. That's what I'm here for," he laughed, stopping his rubbing when Cai threw a small fit about his hair being messed up. He didn't fail to notice how Caiellis snuggled into the crook of his arm, and supposed that after a month or so of pushing his older brother away and developing individually, Caiellis just wanted to be close to Alexander for a bit before they were separated again.

"Alex is just like you, except he is older, so it's his job to protect you. That's what big brothers are for," the smaller boy quoted and Alexander sat up with a jolt.

"You remember that?" he questioned, shocked that his little sibling could recall something that happened when he was three years of age.

_Caiellis sat in his mother's arms, thinking about what she had just said when he asked her where he had come from. Emili smiled as she saw the gears twirling in her youngest's small mind, and he turned to her again, a question in his wide green eyes._

"_If you and daddy made me, then what is Alesh for?" he asked, once again stumbling on the pronunciation of his brother's name. The aforementioned seven year old was playing with building blocks in the corner of the room, and petulantly stuck out his tongue at his little brother, jealous of the attention he was receiving from their mummy._

_Emili laughed and carried Caiellis over to Alexander, who sighed when his brother was deposited in his arms._

"_Alex is just like you, except he is older, so it's his job to protect you. That's what big brothers are for," she explained, ruffling her eldest's blonde hair, who snorted. "Play with him for a bit. I'm just going to get you a drink,"_

"_But he is so lame!" Alexander exclaimed. When she was in the kitchen, she heard a loud thud and a wail of pain erupt from the nursery, and quickly ran inside, motherly concern etched on her face. She sighed in relief when she saw Alex holding his crying brother in a soothing embrace, a red lump appearing of her youngest son's forehead._

"_Mummy! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" Alexander cried, tears beginning to run down his face as well, "I just pushed him. I didn't mean to hurt him!"_

_He held out Caiellis to Emili, who shook her head and gently pushed the now silent boy back to her eldest._

"_Look, he's happy with you. See?" she explained, and Alex looked down into his brother's puffy eyes. He didn't see accusation there, all he saw was forgiveness._

"_Don't worry, big brother. I forgive you," Caiellis said in his high-pitched voice, and Alexander hugged him close. Emili had to pry the two apart when the older brother started suffocating the younger he was hugging him that tight._

"Yeah. I can recall some events, but not very many," Cai grinned, "I don't remember much of mum, but enough to know that she was an extremely kind woman."

"She had the same eyes as you," Alex said quietly, thinking of the nurturing and loving woman that had been ripped away from them. He had been unconscious when she had died, and woken up after Tristram had carried the boys away from the palace. "What else do you remember?"

Caiellis gulped, and then stammered, "I..I can remember _that_ night,"

Alex instantly became rigid, locking his arm around his brother's neck, causing him to cough loudly. He let go and Cai continued, saying: "Though my memories are scattered, I can only remember certain bits. The fire, and the demons. I didn't see her die," he lied, recalling how his brother had been unconscious during it.

After a few minutes of silence in which Alexander pulled his brother in for a hug, Caiellis asked: "When we are at the Scholaria, can you not be so protective? I need to be able to take care of myself."

"I can't promise anything," Alexander admitted, "But I won't butt into everything you do, alright?"

"Thanks."

"Anytime, baby bro, anytime," Alex smirked at Caiellis's most hated nickname, and he suggested: "Get some rest. We have a long journey in front of us, and if you don't get any sleep I'm probably going to end up strangling you."

* * *

><p>New Summonings in this chapter:<p>

Guardian Tristram: Aegis Angel

Hierarch Tybalt: Bruna, Light of Alabaster

Leodred Montlea: Valour

Elizabex Montlea: Purity


	6. Arrival

_As usual, please leave reviews (one would be nice ;)) _

The connection began, pulling the man out of his physical body and depositing him in the Eternal Realm, the meeting place of the Confederacy. He looked around – the other members hadn't arrived yet, as none of the other points on the circle had been taken. The meeting place itself was a large disc split into five equal sections. The background showed a vast expanse of stars that flowed around the disc, giving the impression that the Eternal Realm was always moving, but he knew that the place wasn't real.

For the purpose of the meeting, he would be known as Beta – this in itself didn't signify anything, but the identity of each member of the Confederacy was kept secret. Beta shut his eyes and fully assumed the role, forgetting who he was outside of the Eternal Realm to ensure that the decisions that he made were not distorted by his true nationality, race, or personality – he would act like Beta always had done. He sighed wearily – being a member of the Confederacy took its toll on a person, and although for all intents and purposes he was immortal, ageless, Beta constantly felt exhausted. Making decisions concerning the fate of the world tended to do that to a person.

Beta snapped out of his introspection when Delta crashed into the Eternal Realm – the woman (well, Beta assumed that she was) wore an archaic mask favoured by nobles of a long dead empire that she must have been a part of before her Ascension. The bone-white mask had the rough shape of a fox, and Delta wore a red kimono speckled with elegant black spots. Beta knew that her attire was just as mysterious as his – the man was clothed in a plain white tunic and was masked by an unadorned piece of fabric with eye and mouth holes.

Alpha then ported in, a large and imposing figure wearing armour of burnished bronze and a horned helm of the same metal to hide his identity. Alpha was unmistakably male due to his gruff voice and lack of feminine features. He would often lead the meetings, the fact that he was designated the first giving him an air of false confidence.

Gamma and Epsilon then also entered the Eternal Realm, taking up their positions in the sector of the disc that belonged to them. The former was enigmatic (well, more than the other members),with a bulbous glass mask covered their head and showing the other Confederates their own reflections, while the latter was a small, child-like figure with a high-pitched voice to boot, although the members didn't actually have an age. Epsilon certainly didn't act like a child, and seemed to have quite a malicious tendency, enjoying meddling in the affairs of mortals more than most.

"And so the meeting begins. The pieces are in their assigned places, now we must decided whether or not to act," Alpha intoned, and Epsilon giggled at his melodrama. Beta was aware that the current gathering in the Eternal Realm wasn't to discuss their plans – they had done that in the previous one – but to ensure that each member agreed with them. The Confederacy had an archaic rule that prevented their schemes from being put into action unless every Confederate added their consent; this had often prevented them from doing anything in the past century, as none of them could concur on anything.

A plinth then rose up out of the disc in front of each Confederate, a simple mana receiver that would allow them to show their feelings on the course of action – a member could simply use negative energy and none of the others would be able to go forwards with the scheme. Beta watched as his fellow Confederates all placed their palms to the receiver and acceded to the proposition.

Of course they did. Beta liked to think that he still possessed some humanity, still retained some emotion after all the years of bloodshed they caused and all the manipulation, but even though he knew that was false he was also aware of how much the others had degraded in that respect.

"Beta. Do you disagree with the plan?" Alpha demanded, direct and blunt as usual. Beta had his doubts – how could something like that ever help the world?

"I don't know. It just seems as if we are messing with something that should be left untouched – nothing has happened in the centuries the Confederacy has been established, so why should it now?"

"The darkness grows stronger every day. I can feel it," Delta replied, her voice stained with an emotion that Beta had thought they had long ago purged: fear. "We have to act now. That is our purpose. That is why we were created."

"Who cares how many are sacrificed if the greater whole lives on?" Epsilon asked, its sing-song tone utterly at odds with the bleak question it delivered.

"It just feels...wrong." Beta admitted, realising that he still had some empathy locked up inside of him. "This is further than we have ever gone before. We are supposed to quietly pull the strings, not force them under our control."

"You were always the most human among us," Gamma murmured, and Beta shot the mysterious Confederate an angry glance.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he shouted, before being interrupted by Alpha.

"Beta! Decide now. Do you give your consent, or not?"

"I just wish there was another way," he exhaled deeply, and placed his palm to the plinth, signalling his assent.

"Then we are agreed. We begin immediately," Alpha proclaimed, and Beta couldn't quite shake the niggling suspicion at the back of his mind that he had made the wrong decision. The world would pay if he had.

.*.*.*.

Kaled stepped into the Scholaria Magnus grounds, marvelling at the modern structure ahead of him – it looked foreign to him, but sometimes he could pick out features that were clearly derived from Welkalite architecture. He knew almost nothing about other cultures apart from their names – Lucael, Yentar and Eria – but hoped that his enrolment would help teach him about them. The academy building was tall and wide, stretching across the island with many different sections. It was night-time, and the students would have time to go to their dormitories and find their rooms to sleep. Then the introductory assembly would start tomorrow morning, after breakfast.

"Wonderful, isn't it?" a voice chirped next to him, and he spun around to look at a girl around his age, with medium-length, sapphire coloured hair and hazel eyes. She was thin, but not unhealthily so, and wore a blue dress that matched her hair perfectly, which was tied up by a pale flower brooch. _Who is she trying to impress? _Thought Kaled, as the girl stuck out her hand. "I'm Annia Bylae, Yentarian. You?"

"Kaled Denith, Welkalite," he replied, and Annia could sense the bitter resentment in his tone when he mentioned his nationality.

"Well, Kaled, I will be seeing you around, since I am in the adjacent room to you," Annia smiled, adjusting her hair slightly.

"How do you know?" Kaled asked, confused. All he had managed to work out from the data-sheet handed to him was that he shared a room with some Lucaelian kid named Caiellis. She shook her head impatiently and pulled the sheet away from him, conjuring up Blue mana on her fingertips and tapping the page. She handed it back – the image on it had changed, it now showed an image of Dormitory C, clearly stating that Annia and a girl called Fraya were in the room next to Kaled's.

"How did you do that?" he asked, figuring it would be useful to be able to use the sheet properly, and Annia tutted loudly.

"It says how to in the instructions on the back," she laughed as Kaled turned the paper round, an embarrassed look on his face, and then she poked him on the nose and said: "See you soon."

With that, she took off, leaving Kaled vaguely stunned as to the strangeness of the encounter. The bay was quickly becoming empty as more and more students figured out how to use the seemingly ubiquitous maps, leaving Kaled alone on the sand. The boy paced towards the dorm, when someone shouted: "Street rat! We found you!"

Kaled spun around, his threat sense increasing when he spied a group of pompous looking teenagers that he recognised from the journey there. The boys were all his age and bedecked in expensive fineries that clearly showed how rich their corrupt parents were. The lead boy, an overindulged and pudgy brat going by the name of Arceus, clapped an arm around Kaled's shoulder as his three cronies walked next to them.

"Why don't we take a walk, Kally-boy?" Arceus suggested, glaring at a Yentarian lad who strayed a bit too close for his liking. "Let's go some place a bit more...private."

Kaled assessed the other boys – he probably couldn't beat all four of them at once without using Regata, but didn't want to be the cause of trouble before the first day even started. Kaled didn't know how they would handle infractions at the Scholaria, but the boy certainly did not want to ruin his chances at the school before he even started. He would take a beating if it was the first step on his road to a new life, his ma would be disappointed in him if he lashed out.

As soon as they had turned the corner and Arceus checked that the coast was clear, he slammed the taller boy into the wall. Kaled didn't even flinch. He had endured much worse.

"I don't know how you managed to get here, street-scum," the ringleader spat, which was accompanied by jeers from his gang, "But I am going to make your life hell here, understand?"

He whacked Kaled in the face with the back of his knuckles, shouting, "Understand, rat?"

Kaled couldn't help but let a smile creep onto his face – Arceus hit like a wet noodle, and when he noticed the other boy punched him again. And again.

"How does that feel, Kally-boy?" the boy smirked viciously, and blood began to leak from a cut on Kaled's cheek. He grimaced, and Arceus hit him again, and then turned to one of his "friends".

"Let's teach this scum that street rats don't belong here."

"Actually, the motto of the school is "Quis Delda Los", which in ancient Yentarian means "Merit based upon talent". So actually, whether this "street rat" of yours belongs here isn't up to you," Arceus spun around indignantly, and glared as a tall blonde-haired boy from one of the older years strolled around the corner and towards them.

"And who the hell are you?" he demanded, and the older boy smirked.

"Someone who isn't afraid of the consequences for standing up for themselves, unlike the kid here," he replied, his blue eyes hardening and his posture switching from casual to threatening in the blink of an eye. "Leave him alone. Now."

Arceus chortled, and the act was reciprocated by his gang, who let out worried laughs. The ringleader was about to jeer when a strong fist lanced into his face, knocking him away from the stunned Kaled. Blood exploded from the boy's nose and he staggered backwards, an expression of shock and pain on his face.

"I warned you. Now leave," the older boy stated calmly, and Arceus glared at him and began to slink away, feeling humiliated in front of his friends. He would make sure to have his revenge. The older boy shook his head sadly and turned to Kaled, who was still bleeding from the cuts on his face.

"You look pretty beaten up. Would you like me to take you to the infirmary?" he asked, mild worry inflecting his stern features as he helped Kaled up.

"No thanks. I've endured worse. I'll just go to my dorm," Kaled replied, glad that the other teenager had intervened before he had been forced to fight back. The taller boy nodded and held out his hand for Kaled to shake, who did so gratefully.

"I'm Alexander, but call me Alex. Lucaelian," he said, grinning at the younger boy, who gave his own name and nationality back.

"Thanks for that, brother," he stated solemnly and Alex made a face at him.

"Sorry Kaled, but only one person is allowed to call me that."

"You have a sibling?" Kaled inquired, a vague hint of jealousy in his tone before he quashed it immediately. What he would give to have a brother like him. Alex nodded silently, and Kaled pressed on: "A sister?"

Alexander snorted and laughed: "You could say that."

"A little brother then?" and the Lucaelian nodded again. "What's his name?"

"Caiellis," the boy replied, and Kaled physically jolted back. He remembered that name from somewhere. He pulled out the data sheet and began tapping furiously on it, Red mana encircling the tip of his index finger. Alex sniggered and yanked the sheet off him, gently pressing on the map with soothing White mana and waiting until it acknowledged his request. As soon as it did, the Lucaelian howled with laughter.

"Haha. You share a room with him," he giggled, and Kaled began to walk over to dormitory C. Alexander followed him and said: "I'll just make sure you get there safe. I have a feeling that those pompous idiots won't want to leave you alone. Besides, it won't hurt to check in on the squirt."

They walked together through an outside area that had an exotic variety of trees on display – Dorm C was just across from there, when Kaled asked: "What is Caiellis like then?"

"Quiet. Reserved. Cute. Smart," Alex responded, smiling as he thought of Cai – he was pleased that his brother hadn't been placed with one of the bullies from earlier, as the youngest member of the Scholaria Magnus would be an easy target, although Alexander was confident that his younger brother could stand up for himself – in fact he was vaguely worried about what he would do to someone if he saw them picking on Caiellis. "You'll get on just fine."

Kaled absorbed the information without a word – if this Caiellis was anything like his brother then they certainly would, but the Welkalite has a large suspicion that he wouldn't be. Alex then placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Kaled, can you do me a favour?" he asked, and the boy was surprised to see sadness in Alexander's eyes.

"Sure!" he responded quickly, eager to make up for what Alex had already done for him. Alex grinned and released Kaled, and said: "Make sure that Caiellis actually eats. He has a tendency to ignore food when he is focussed on something, and he is thin enough already."

Kaled could clearly see the big brother in his new friend then, Alex's protective instinct colouring his words, and patted the larger boy on the arm.

"Me and Caiellis will be in the same year, won't we?" he asked, and Alex nodded, adding, "Though he is younger than you. He became thirteen only a month ago, but because of our father he-... it's not important." the older boy cut off, brushing over the fact that they were royalty. Everyone in the Scholaria started equally, and he was fully aware of how Cai detested being treated with respect just because of his origin, as his younger brother thought that he hadn't done anything to deserve that.

"He's only thirteen?" Kaled questioned, not wanting to pry into something his friend chose to keep hidden, and sensing Alex's worry underneath his calm demeanour, decided to reassure the older boy. "Don't worry. I'll take good care of him."

"I'm not sure that he'll appreciate it," Alex mused, "But thanks from me."

Kaled followed the Lucaelian into the dormitory and almost bumped into him when he stopped in front of the fourth door on the right.

"There's your room," he instructed, and Kaled once again thanked him for earlier, and pushed the wooden door open. The room was medium sized, with two single beds at equidistant points from the centre of the room. There was a small bathroom with a shower and toilet on the right, and large windows opposite from the entry door that were currently covered by black curtains. Each bed had a small wooden desk next to it, one of which had a pile of books neatly placed on top. The bed next to that desk on the left of the room was already occupied, the boy who must have been Caiellis snapping the book he had been reading shut and looking up at the door. The Lucaelian looked at him intently, as if analysing Kaled, and then Caiellis narrowed his eyes as he spied the tell-tale flash of blonde hair behind his new roommate.

"Alex? What are you doing here? You said that you would leave me alone when we got here?" Caiellis snapped, and Kaled instantly concluded that he didn't like the younger boy.

"Your brother was just taking me here. It was a coincidence that I happened to share a room with you," Kaled shot back, feeling like Caiellis was unnecessarily antagonising his big brother for something out of his control. The boy raised his eyebrows – Alex had been right, he was quite cute, although the dark mark on his right cheek looked quite ominous, and Alexander laughed in the background.

"See you soon, baby brother!" he snickered and walked off, and Kaled went into the room and pushed the door shut behind him. Caiellis continued to glower at the door, as if through force of will he could burn it open and incinerate his brother. Actually, Kaled thought, he didn't know what his roommate's powers were, though he must have been quite exceptional to be permitted into the academy at thirteen, so didn't put the act past him.

Kaled slung his small bag of possessions onto his side of the room, which earned a scowl from Caiellis, as his section was carefully organised. Kaled suddenly noticed the presence of an ornate and sheathed sword resting upright on the wall – surely the weapon should have been confiscated? He jumped onto his bed, tired out from the long journey, when Caiellis's quiet voice piped up.

"I don't think we started out very well. I'm Caiellis Noctis Lucerna. Lucaelian," the boy smiled shyly and held out his small hand for his roommate, who took it and shook it, Kaled's tanned fist easily able to close fully around the younger boy's hand. Caiellis was thin, more than most teenagers, and Kaled could fully empathise with Alexander on wanting his little brother to eat more.

"Quite the mouthful," Kaled replied nonchalantly and stifled a laugh at the boy's unamused scowl. Actually, Caiellis was more than a little pleased – his roommate clearly had never heard of the Lucaelian royalty before, so that meant that would actually be treated as a person rather than a title.

"Call me Cai. And even though I already know your name, it would be appreciated if you participated in this little introductory activity we have going on here."

"Hi, I'm Kaled Denith, Welkalite, nice to meet you too," he sniggered, squeezing the boy's hand hard which elicited a hiss from his roommate. Cai pulled away, spontaneously deciding that he had tried hard enough to make a friend, and there was nothing more he could do. Further conversation was deemed useless, so he turned around in the bed and began to read his book again – Caiellis realised that he would probably need his shell soon, so started its mental reconstruction. However, he would try not to use it against Alex any more.

Kaled sat in his bed for a while, thinking that he had hurt the younger boy. He had tried not to cause him pain, but Cai was definitely fragile, so Kaled could have easily done so. He felt guilty, like he had failed Alexander already – Kaled had promised to take care of the younger boy, and his new friend would be displeased with him if Caiellis was hurt. Kaled was under no illusions – even though Alex had helped him out earlier, his little brother was surely miles higher on his list of priorities than some new acquaintance, almost certainly at the top. He resolved to say something to check if his roommate was fine, it was far too early to be going to sleep now anyway.

"Cai? Are you alright?" he asked, but it was like talking to a wall. The boy didn't even acknowledge his roommate, but Kaled could still hear the flicking of pages. He reached over and shook the smaller boy, who made him jump but spinning around and glaring at him.

"What do you want?" Caiellis demanded, and Kaled was shocked at the sudden vehemence in his tone. The prince had been trying to read, but every second his thoughts went to the Angel of the Black Sun residing in his body. He hadn't been able to attempt the Summoning for a couple of days, and once again began to feel the crushing weight of expectation hanging over his shoulders, even though he was hundreds of miles away from what could well become his kingdom. He didn't really know how to cope with the feeling now that his only release had been forbidden by his older family members, and was pondering the fact that despite his father's kinder tone and gift, he still expected Caiellis to pass the test soon, although at least now he understood better why it was difficult for the youngest Lucerna, when he had felt a hand on his shoulder.

Forgetting where he was for a brief moment, Caiellis thought it would be Alexander, but was sorely disappointed to see Kaled there, and was reminded once again about how the king needed his failure of a child out of his sight to concentrate on the kingdom – Cai didn't believe for a second that Marik's intention had been to "improve as a father" before they returned. He hadn't meant to spit the words out with such acidity, but thankfully Kaled didn't seem that offended.

"I just wanted to check on you, chill out. Your brother would probably kill me if I hurt you," Kaled mumbled, and Caiellis could help but laugh.

"What, you thought you hurt me with that rough handshake?" he chuckled incredulously, "Trust me, when you have an obsessive older brother that is twice your size and strength, you tend to rack up on the bruises."

"You shouldn't slag of Alex that much, he is only trying to look out for you," Kaled chided, and in spite of the fact that there was only a minute hint of envy in his voice, Caiellis detected it instantaneously.

He wasn't entirely sure of how to reply to that so decided to stay silent instead, and after Kaled began to feel awkward after a few seconds he tried to make some conversation.

"It's a great opportunity, isn't it? The Scholaria I mean," he contemplated for a moment, his mind drawn to his ma's sacrifice, the thing that had secured his placement here. He was determined not to waste this chance she had given him, and was thinking about that when the smaller boy replied with: "You could call it that."

"What do you mean?" Kaled asked, sitting up in his bed. Caiellis reciprocated the gesture, also bringing his knees up to his chest and huddling them with his thin arms, making the Welkalite remember belatedly that the boy was two years younger than him – even so, Caiellis still looked small and weak as he asked, "What would you say it is then?" The boy glanced up at him.

"A punishment? A waste of time? Just two suggestions," he answered bitterly, and Kaled was confused as to how anyone could view it in that way.

"How can you say that? Aren't you grateful for being here?" Kaled snapped, accidentally letting anger enter his tone, but the younger boy automatically picked up on it and made his voice louder too – it was a tactic he had developed when he was younger, often raising his voice so that his angry brother would listen to him.

"No, not in the slightest! And why should I be?" Caiellis shouted back, subconsciously baiting the older boy to react. Kaled acted without thinking, grabbing the near-weightless boy by the front of his collar and slamming him into a wall, lifting the thirteen year old off his feet. His ma had died to get him here! How could any person spurn this opportunity? Cai gulped and looked back into Kaled's wrathful face. He could have kicked himself for letting his feelings of stress and sadness get in the way of rational judgement – this Kaled was obviously different to the other Welkalites, judging by the wealth of the students sent here, so something significant must have happened to allow him to be enrolled, something that Kaled cared about very deeply. He just hoped that he wouldn't have to fight back, that Kaled would have enough restraint to avoid causing him pain.

All Kaled wanted to do was punch this arrogant child in the face, but his words from earlier resonated in his mind – the least he could do for Alex was not hurt his younger brother, in fact he had said the he would protect Cai. He was doing a great job of that now, but he had just insulted something that his ma had given her life for, and the younger boy squirmed as Kaled unconsciously tightened his grip, pressing into Caiellis's throat and restricting his breathing.

"I'm coming in!" a female voice announced, and Annia burst into the room, an excited smile on her face that was soon replaced by a look of horror.

"Kaled! What are you doing? Don't you know who he is?" she cried, shoving him hard as another girl stood awkwardly in the doorway. Kaled snapped out of seeing red and instantly released Caiellis, the Lucaelian slumping to the floor. The Welkalite stepped away and turned around, sitting on his bed. He was angry at Cai's words, but he was more annoyed at himself – he had overreacted hugely.

As Caiellis got to his feet, brushing himself down, the Yentarian fell to her knees in a strangely familiar gesture.

"My lord, my name is Annia Bylae, Yentarian, and I share the room next to yours – I hope that we will be able to talk a lot in the future," she chattered, and then immediately blushed profusely. She hadn't meant to say that last part.

Luckily, the boy didn't seem to here that last part, until he started laughing.

"You are just like your sister," he smirked, and coughed, rubbing the front of his bruised neck, as the girl asked, getting to her feet: "Oh, you met Jenna? She was at Capitalia Lux, wasn't she?"

"Indeed. She mentioned you." Caiellis said in a strained voice, not wanting to speak more then necessary and turned to look at the doorway. The girl who had stood there was now gone – she looked like an Erian, and was probably quite nervous about talking to other people. The prince could empathise with that, as Annia looked down at him sympathetically. "Are you ok, my lord?"

"What is with this "my lord" business?" Kaled asked, turning back around once he had composed himself and made sure he wouldn't lash out anymore.

"You really don't know? Are you stupid?" the girl raised her eyebrows dubiously, and the Welkalite squinted at Cai, thinking hard for a second – nope, he didn't recognise the boy or his name from anything.

"Quite possibly. Could either of you please explain what is going on?"

"Caiellis Noctis _Lucerna_," Annia emphasised the last part of his name, explaining: "The monarchy of Lucael – Caiellis is the son of the king."

"Ok," Kaled replied simply – did she expect him to be impressed? If so the Yentarian would be severely disappointed.

Cai laughed grimly, and said: "I like your style Kaled. I really don't deserve all of the admiration I receive." He then coughed violently, massaging his throat, and Kaled moved towards him, concerned.

"Anyway, I'm going to bed now," declared Annia, pushing open the door. "I just thought it would be nice to see the people in the room next door. See you tomorrow!"

After she shut the door and left, Kaled placed a hand on the boy's slender arm and guiltily asked: "Did I hurt you? Sorry if I did."

"It's fine, Alex," Caiellis snickered at his roommate's puzzled expression, and elaborated. "I already have one older brother. I don't need you look after me too. And yes, for a moment you did choke me. But we'll put it behind us, unless you would prefer that Alexander became aware"

Caiellis brushed past him gracefully and slipped into the bathroom, pulling out a toothbrush from one of his luggage bags and carrying another one in. Kaled hadn't thought to bring or ask for something so simple as a toothbrush, and had a few changes of clothes, but no nightwear. He pondered the boy's words for a few seconds, he felt that it was instinctive to want to protect the younger male, but he reasoned that Caiellis would have been guarded his entire life, not just by his overprotective big brother but by his father's guards as well. Maybe the kid just wanted a friend that he could talk to without them constantly trying to keep him out of harm's way, or maybe Cai didn't actually want to be friendly with the older boy.

The Lucerna sighed wearily when the door was shut, pulling off his shirt and running White mana down the cuts all across his thin torso. He wasn't able to heal the wounds outright – one of the most fundamental tenets of healing was that one could not repair wounds that they had caused themselves, although he done this everyday since starting, the magic preventing the cuts from infecting. It was the stinging sensation of sudden pain that he had needed to distract him from overwhelming despair, he didn't want to cause lasting damage or degrade his own health further.

After doing that, he undressed fully and put his pyjamas on, and then started to brush his teeth. If Caiellis was fully honest with himself, he felt nothing towards his roommate, he just wanted them to be on good terms so that Kaled wouldn't distract him from the school. Cai assumed that there would be facilities for students who had not Summoned yet, and would relentlessly attempt the test until he passed it. It would be interesting to see what else would occur, but that was a minor objective in the prince's opinion. Passing the Summoning was Caiellis's first priority.

Once a few minutes had passed, he re-emerged into the main room, and Kaled couldn't help but smile at how adorable the young prince looked.

"Aww, have you got a teddy bear as well?" he joked, and Caiellis went and sat on the bed next to him.

"Actually, I was hoping that you could fill in that role," the younger boy admitted, shuffling closer to Kaled and looking up at him with pleading puppy-dog eyes.

"I-I didn't know you felt that way," Kaled stammered, going bright red and turning away. He certainly hadn't considered that. Cai burst into laughter and Kaled shoved him, knocking him off the bed and onto the floor.

"Don't _do _that!" he chastised, feeling embarrassed and quite stupid, although he hadn't expected the Lucaelian to make jokes.

Caiellis hung his head in mock shame, and got back onto his bed, pulling the covers over him and apologising. "I'm sorry. It was a pitiful excuse for a joke."

"Well it caught me off guard." Kaled laughed, and then noticing the other boy snuggled into his bed, asked: "What time is it anyway?"

"10:13," Cai replied smoothly, looking at his watch that was on the desk next to him.

"That's way too early to be going to sleep. Although, I suppose that babies have to go to bed earlier than the rest of us," Kaled teased, and Caiellis sat up and snapped back: "Watch your tongue before I cut it off. Besides, I have a feeling it will be a long day tomorrow, especially since the whole-academy assembly is at eight, and breakfast will have to be eaten before that."

"Whatever," Kaled grumbled, pulling off his t-shirt and dumping it next to his bed, revealing a muscular and tanned upper body. Caiellis turned away, muttering: "Can't you get undressed in the bathroom like a normal person?"

"I'm not a normal person, and why? Does it make you uncomfortable? Are you jealous?"

"None of us at the Scholaria Magnus are normal. And no, I have to live with Alex, so I've seen worse."

"You two seem very close."

"And why shouldn't we be?"

"I don't know," Kaled mumbled, "I guess I just thought you wouldn't have forged a "brotherly bond" being royalty and all."

"We've only lived in luxury for a month, because of the-" Caiellis silenced himself immediately, cursing in his mind. News of the civil war in Lucael had been carefully restricted, and here he was going to share it with a complete stranger.

"Because of what?"

"Nothing. I'll tell you some other time. Good night." Cai got up out of his bed and switched the lights off, leaving the boys in darkness, alone with their thoughts.


	7. The Scholaria Magnus

_Please review XD_

Kaled sat up in the bed, stretching his limbs out and emitting a loud yawn, Caiellis twisting and murmuring: "Just five more minutes..." The Welkalite hadn't slept well at all, his mind constantly thinking about what the introduction day would bring, how his new life would properly start out. He walked over to the other boy's desk and checked his watch – 07:04 – plenty of time for them to get ready and go to have breakfast before the assembly.

He gently shook the Lucaelian, who mumbled something indecipherable and glared up at him.

"Rise and shine, beauty queen. Your kingdom awaits," Kaled grinned, and Cai narrowed his eyes.

"One day it may well do. But not right now," he replied seriously, and his roommate chuckled and flung the curtains open, early-morning golden sunlight cascading over the room and illuminating everything in a yellow glow. The island wasn't as hot as Kaled was used to, with medium-range temperatures – the Lucaelians wouldn't find it unbearably hot, whilst the Welkalites and Yentarians would be satisfied with the mild heat.

The instant the light washed over him, Caiellis gave an involuntary shriek of pain as a burning stimulus tore through his nerves. He couldn't see anything, the light blinding in its intensity, and as Kaled shot to his side he buried himself under the covers, whimpering slightly.

"Cai! What's wrong?" he shouted as the boy huddled further under his sheets, shuddering. A yell of "Could you please shut up?" echoed throughout the corridor, and Kaled heard the door open, the frightened noise and loud shouting must have attracted someone. He wasn't surprised in the slightest when a tired looking Annia appeared at his side, the girl wearing a silver dressing gown that shone in the sunlight. "What is wrong with him?" Kaled asked desperately, and Annia gave him an exasperated look.

"You really do know nothing about anything, do you?" she snapped caustically, striding to the curtains and dragging them shut. "Lucael is a kingdom perpetually shrouded in darkness - they barely ever have sunlight, and when they do it is a cause for celebration, as the intervals can go into years. Caiellis might not have ever seen the sun before, and here you are exposing him unexpectedly to it. Caiellis, it's ok now, you can come out," she encouraged, slowly peeling off the quilt when it became clear the prince wasn't going to do it himself.

"Sorry," Kaled muttered ashamedly, but how was he supposed to have known that? Neither Alex nor Caiellis himself mentioned it, so Kaled couldn't really be blamed for it, although Annia seemed set upon doing exactly that.

"It's ok Kaled. How could you have known? I completely forgot about it myself to be honest," Caiellis stated, as if reading his roommate's mind, emerging from his cocoon and rubbing his eyes sleepily. "I just felt a burning sensation and couldn't see anything. You can open the curtains again now. And thanks, Annia."

The Yentarian flushed and turned away before either of the boys would notice, as Kaled pulled the drapes apart and sunlight once again cast its glow upon the room. Caiellis didn't react this time apart from a sharp intake of breath as he adjusted to the feeling. Annia said her goodbyes and stepped out of the room, bumping into another student, a larger boy that was also Lucaelian.

"What was that racket?" he demanded, and Annia sighed.

"Caiellis was just adapting to the light," she explained, and the boy widened his eyes in surprise.

"Prince Caiellis is here?"

"Yes, in the room I just came out of," pre-empting the teenager's next question, she explained: "The instructions on how to use the data-sheet are on the back."

He barged past her and she rolled her eyes, returning to her own room where Freya had finished getting ready. The mysterious Erian had been picked for the enrolment to the Scholaria Magnus by the shamans of her nation, and had lived in the deep forest before coming here. Beyond that, Annia hadn't been able to glean anything else about the girl, apart from the fact that she had a strong connection to Green mana.

Kaled was about to go into the bathroom for a shower when he heard the door open for the second time, and a pale Lucaelian boy that was about his size who was seemingly unaffected by the sunlight strode in. The instant he caught sight of the prince propped up in his bed, he fell to his knees in a gesture of supplication. Caiellis hid his scowl as the boy's eyes met his. Kaled hung in the doorway of the bathroom, eager to see the exchange.

"My prince. I hadn't expected to have a room so close to yours – opposite in fact."

Cai shut his eyes, scouring through the depths of his memory – he recognized the fifteen year old from somewhere, maybe from his journey throughout Lucael in the years of the civil war. He and his brother had needed to keep moving to prevent Johnias's demons from pinpointing their location, as the king's brother knew Marik's main weakness well – his young family. The death of the king's wife taught him that much, and he knew that his twin brother wouldn't be able to mount a defence should his children be slaughtered as well. Caiellis smiled as he located the memory, and reopened his green eyes.

"Mysos, son of Xathan, Slayer of the Wicked and Guardian of Cassida Principia," the prince grinned, remembering staying at the City of Swords and meeting the Guardian's young son (in-between his an Alexander's age) before Johnias's general, Garod Morr, Guardian of the former City of Commerce, laid siege. It had been a brief respite from wandering the darkness, as the monorail transport systems that were so useful now had only just started construction. Cai vaguely recalled Alexander beating up Mysos after he pushed the boy's little brother into a table, but Mysos had obviously matured in the seven years afterwards.

Stunned at the prince's remembrance of his name, Mysos blinked twice and Caiellis pressed on, "Well then Mysos, everyone starts equal at the Scholaria Magnus, so please don't kneel to me. Or call me anything but Caiellis or Cai for that matter."

Mysos got to his feet, a wide grin on his face, amazed that the prince remembered him despite being only six years old at the time, and Kaled chose that moment to ask the question that had been burning in his mind: "So you're Lucaelian as well, but not affected by the sunlight?"

The son of Xathan regarded him haughtily, as if he hadn't even noticed that the Welkalite was in the room, and Kaled smiled sarcastically back at him.

"All Lucaelians have a moment in their lives when they are exposed to the sunlight for the first time, reacting in a scared way. However, mine, and every other student from the Kingdom of Light's first time was a year before the young prince was born."

"Why don't you just move out of the darkness?" Kaled suggested, and Mysos looked at him like he had just taken a dump on his favourite possession.

"Don't be ridiculous. The light here, and anywhere else in the world, is _nothing_ compared to the light the angels bless us with, no matter how brief it may be." Mysos described as if the point he was making was as simple to grasp as why fire burned things. "Well, Caiellis, would you like to join me for morning prayers?."

"Thank you for the offer, but I'll pass. I prefer to do it alone," the youngest boy replied solemnly, and Mysos departed, as Kaled swore with his fingers at his back. He had no idea about what Mysos had just said, and he turned to Caiellis, who looked like he was in deep thought.

"Do you want me to leave if you're going to pray?" he asked, and the boy grinned back at him.

"Don't you dare mention it to anyone apart from Alexander, who already knows, but I don't pray. I don't worship the angels as messiahs, and I don't feel the need to pray to my distant ancestor."

"That must be hard for you," Kaled offered, and the Lucaelian glanced strangely at him.

"Not really. I am pretty much treated like some sort of messenger from the gods anyway," he responded enigmatically, and Kaled shrugged his shoulders and went to get ready for his shower.

.*.*.*.

There were about 100 students in the hall, but knowing the Yentarians and their love for precise mathematics and knowledge Caiellis guessed that there would be 120 pupils in total – thirty from each nation, and forty in each of the three years. Kaled, Annia and the Erian girl who introduced herself as Freya stood next to him, the former two excitedly chattering whilst the latter stayed silent. Caiellis saw his older brother at the far east of the room, who noticed his little brother staring at him and pointed out his position to a couple of other teenagers. Cai waved shyly back, and Alexander laughed at him.

The boy's attention started to drift as Kaled and Annia began childishly bickering about something, and observed the wide hall. There was a raised area at the far end, probably where the person addressing them would situate themselves, with the flags of each nation hung behind. He focussed his gaze on a doorway at the far side of the stage that creaked open, revealing a middle-aged man wearing grey/blue robes that slowly paced towards the centre of the raised area. The man had medium-length, greying hair and a large beard of the same colour – if Caiellis could choose one word to describe him, it would definitely be wise. He reminded him slightly of Uncle Tybalt, but whilst the Hierarch was more dignified and strict this man seemed more understanding and affable.

The chatter in the hall slowly died down as more and more students realised that one of the teachers was among them, and when he reached the middle of the stage and gave a quiet cough that somehow projected across the whole room. When the last pupil stopped talking, the man nodded as if satisfied and looked down at his audience.

"Students of the Scholaria Magnus, as the headmaster of the school, I bid you welcome. I am Mr Colae, but please feel free to call me Hadan," the headmaster announced, his voice captivating. He was clearly a very good public speaker, Caiellis's mind for a moment going back to the humiliating incident in Capitalia Lux that his brother had had to rescue him from.

"Many of you will be wondering what sort of lessons will take place at the academy, thus I shall now introduce the teachers that will cater to these."

As he was finishing his sentence, a selection of other adults walked up onto the stage, and Mr Colae beckoned them forwards.

A hard-faced Lucaelian woman and a large and gruff-looking Welkalite man stepped first, standing straight and surveying the students in front of them as if they were a bunch on new recruits.

"This is Miss Gloria and Sergeant Tarkos, the both covering combat training – the former without your Summoning, while the latter includes that," Hadan declared, as another two mentors replaced the military teachers, who filed back into the line.

"Doctor Argyle, Shaman Trostani and myself will teach you about wielding magic and Sancturia itself, with the first also educating in mathematics." A Yentarian male swathed in heavy robes glanced impassively at the students, like they were test subjects, and Cai shuddered slightly when he saw the glint of metal from under the man's large sleeves. He had heard of the League of Uveria, those that believed in the purity of the machine and replaced "weak" biological limbs with artificial replicas, but had never actually seen one before. The Shaman was a dishevelled Erian that had a mysterious air about her, and the Lucaelian knew of their strong link with the land itself. The headmaster himself didn't directly show any allegiance to any nation, but Caiellis would guess he was Yentarian also, from the League of Isak.

"Finally, Mr Fram will teach you about culture." An unassuming man bowed slightly, his spectacles wobbling on his long nose.

"These are the mentors that will aid you in achieving your full potential at the Scholaria Magnus, and each grade will have a revolving timetable, spending time with each. However, the year system based on age is a purely temporary of organising you in the first few weeks, where we will be individually and group testing you. After that, classes will be based upon skill alone," Mr Colae proclaimed, and Caiellis nodded – age was no indication of strength as far as he was concerned. "Assembly over – Year 1 will be taken by Miss Gloria and Sergeant Tarkos, Year 2 myself and Mr Fram, and finally Year 3 Doctor Argyle and Shaman Trostani."

The students dispersed, walking towards their respective teachers, and Kaled clapped Cai on the back.

"How cool is that? We get to see the combat teachers first!" he grinned, evidently happy about the arrangement of the first lessons, while Annia sighed despairingly. "Urrgh, why couldn't we have done magic class instead?" she moaned, and Kaled shook his head in bemusement. Caiellis himself wasn't too concerned about the timetable – all he cared about was when he would be able to attempt the Summoning again.

.*.*.*.

The training room was connected to a large armour filled with all sorts of weaponry, and was comprised of several spacious fighting cages, the metal enchanted with a strange glow that Caiellis assumed would prevent damage. The forty students of Year 1, the youngest in the academy, sat in a central area while Miss Gloria introduced them to the area, explaining that there were also arenas farther out that could be used in testing students against captured Unbound creatures of various strengths and mana-alignment, as the Scholaria was located on an island where all five colours were present in equal force.

As his fellow trainer briefed the pupils, Tarkos observed each one of them intently, as if assessing their combat aptitude from physicality alone. When his gaze brushed over Caiellis, the young prince couldn't help but stare back into the man's judging and harsh eyes, the sergeant glaring at him more than he had done with the others.

The boy sensed a great amount of resentment directed specifically towards him – however, judging by the Welkalite's age, he would probably have fought in the rebellion against their corrupt tyrants as a teenager, so his hatred of royalty would stem from there. It didn't help that Cai was the only one who was armed – he had taken the Sword of Glass with him, doubting that he would be able to use it, but no other weapon that he had ever wielded reacted as with him as that.

"Before we start, I would like everyone who hasn't Summoned yet to come forward for a few seconds – just so we can calculate the amount of Summoning Bays we will need next lesson." Gloria ordered, and Caiellis stood up ashamedly along with a few other teenagers, mostly Welkalites, shuffling glumly towards the teacher. He felt surprised eyes at his back, and bowed his head in shame, knowing that he deserved the humiliation for not passing the test. Gloria took their names on a sheet of paper, her eyes flashing with recognition at the prince but otherwise making no comment.

"Right then. We will begin with simple and unrestricted duels – just so we can see your relative skill and strength. Magic and Summonings are permitted, although those without should fight each other," Gloria pronounced, and Caiellis was about to object when the sergeant cut in: "Hold your tongue, boy." He couldn't resist glowering at the man, who returned it with a sarcastic and condescending smile.

Each teacher began announcing names as to who would fight, the students called up taking their places next to specific cages. Tarkos grinned when he realised that all the other pupils without Summonings had already been called, leaving Caiellis as the only one with three other students.

"Meri and Joeseph, you two duel," he commanded, and the named excitedly ran off to their assigned arena. "Now then, that leaves Kaled and Caiellis. Sorry Kaled, but you will have to fight someone without a Summoning. Try to go easy on him." Tarkos smiled, as if revelling in demeaning the prince.

"How is that fair? He doesn't have a Summoning! I might hurt him!" Kaled objected, and Cai snarled: "Shut up. Sir, may I used the Sword of Glass?"

"Why not? Not like it will help you much."

They took up positions on the opposite sides of the cage, Kaled rolling his shoulders and stretching whilst his opponent practised swinging his sword, the sergeant's eyes watching him intently.

"Kaled, begin your Summoning," he instructed, and Kaled felt a rush of fiery heat course through his veins and blasting out of him, coalescing to form the feline shape of Regata. The fire-cat snarled and he gave it a little tickle behind the ears, the owner impervious to the flames pulsing off the elemental.

"Who is our opponent? A child?" it snarled, flecks of magma hissing as they touched the metal floor.

"Yeah, but it is only a practise session. No ripping him apart," Kaled warned, Regata shaking his head disappointedly. Caiellis stood impassively, watching the exchange intently and gauging the strength of his foes. He pushed irrelevant thoughts out of his mind, focussing fully on the combat as Tristram had taught him – there was no room for remorse when fighting traitors.

"Are you ready?" Tarkos asked, and both boys nodded, Kaled's face lit up enthusiastically while the prince's was blank and fixed on his opponent.

"Then go!" the Sergeant shouted, and Caiellis blurred forwards, instantly hacking apart Regata in a blinding explosion of fire and light. He reversed his grip on the Sword of Glass and pointed the tip directly at Kaled's throat, who was still reeling from the sudden elimination of the elemental. All this had taken place in less than a single second.

"You need to concentrate more on the battle, rather than if you will hurt me or not," Cai chastised, his voice harsh and brilliant luminescence surrounding his fragile body. His weapon was also suffused with such a glow, the edges tinted in darkness, and Kaled gulped at how fast he had been defeated. What his friend had said was true – he was thinking about the fact that he had a Summoning created an imbalance in power and not paying full attention to the duel, but he hadn't expected to be punished for it so swiftly.

"I think that's enough of your relic blade," Tarkos scowled, annoyed that the insolent thirteen year old had bested Kaled so fast. He had wanted to teach the boy about respect, but might have only succeeded in increasing his ego further. It was the reality that Caiellis was so innocent, so perfect that really pissed him off the most. The fact that he was the only person that was an exception to the age range just because he was the son of a king didn't help either. He yanked it off the boy, the sword instantaneously deactivating the instant it left Cai's grip. "Have a rematch now it is more even."

Had he been annoyed at the sergeant's clear discrimination towards him, Kaled's opponent didn't show it, silently pacing back to his side and taking up a ready position, the concentration never leaving his green eyes. Grunting with effort, Kaled re-summoned Regata, easy enough to do with such a low-mana creature.

"I underestimated you, boy," the fire-cat hissed, directing the comment at Caiellis, "Not this time. This time, my jaws will feast on your young flesh. Metaphorically speaking." He added as he sensed his Summoner's irritation. Kaled noticed the sergeant walking away, idly swing the Sword of Glass (as Cai had called it), glad that the man was going to observe other students instead of focusing solely on them.

Caiellis knew that there was no way he was going to get close to Kaled or his flame-beast without a weapon, mentally preparing himself for using offensive spells, silently wishing that he had access to his own Summoning. He would not have the element of surprise on his side this time, he could see Kaled was significantly more aware and wary now that he knew how powerful. The Welkalite still had a grin on his face – what could be so enjoyable about violence? Caiellis had often pondered the question, but it seemed like a lot of men and teenagers, including his older brother, liked to fight with each other. Alexander had often wanted to wrestle with him, which Cai couldn't understand, Alex already knew that he was going to win, so why bother?

_Focus on the fight! _He admonished himself harshly, ashamed that he had disregarded his own advice so quickly.

"You ready?" Kaled inquired, and Caiellis nodded. The fire-cat would attack first, so he already had binding spells in mind to nullify the first strike. Kaled would probably go in afterwards, possibly utilising Red mana to enhance his strikes in a similar way to his older brother, so physical defences would be the key. Then he would switch to the offensive, powerful light-magic hopefully proving enough to win.

Just as he predicted, Regata leapt forwards, the elemental roaring like an angry volcano, and the prince uttered the words of power to halt it...

.*.*.*.

They sat in the Magic Development Classroom, Cai's eyes drawn to the pieces of strange machinery at the back of the class – each was a metal bed with soft cushions placed along it, connected to an opaque but glass visor with several wires trailing off it, leading to several screens beside each bed that were currently dark.

The boy assumed that these were the Summoning Bays Miss Gloria had mentioned, advanced pieces of equipment that were supposed to help those passing the test by inducing the mind-state needed for it, not that Caiellis had ever had trouble doing that before. He could feel anticipation building up in his chest – maybe this would be the time that he finally did it – before ruthlessly quashing it, knowing well that such emotions were a great hindrance in the Mind Realm.

The realm itself was a combination of the creature's residence in Sancturia with the Summoner's own mind, as that is where the Summonings resided since their designated child was born. No-one agreed on what drew a specific creature to a specific infant, some argued that the Sancturia resident chose while other believed that it was forced into the contract.

The youngest Lucerna listening intently to Shaman Trostani whilst also focusing on his thoughts, as Doctor Argyle prepared the bays for use. At the man's insistence the students who needed the bays came forwards, and Caiellis pondered if such a piece of equipment would help him in completing the trial. He felt apprehension shudder down his spine as the Uverian starting adjusting dials and tapping keys on the machine hooked up to his bay, seeing Kaled sticking his thumb up encouragingly at him, not paying any attention to the lesson.

They had sparred many times over the remainder of the training session, even though Cai defeated Kaled each time his respect for the Welkalite began to grow.

Caiellis forced himself to relax and slow his breathing as the visor was lowered carefully over his face – he had been to the Mind Realm many times, but it felt like he was being trapped this time.

"You will feeling a sinking sensation," the doctor stated, his robotic voice inflected with a slight bit of comfort, and Caiellis bit back an angry retort of _I know what happens!_, understanding that this was just his anxiety talking and that Argyle was trying to put him at ease after obviously noticing the prince's elevated heart rate, Instead, he nodded confidently, trying to appear strong in front of the teacher and the other students who would be watching when all he felt was fear – not at what the challenge would bring, Cai was terrified of further failure and the disappointment of his father and other Lucaelians.

"We will be able to see your trial on one of the screens, one of the many benefits of the Mark IV Summoning Bays," the doctor explained, but Cai wasn't really listening as a numbing sensation drifted over him.

He felt himself slowly detaching from reality and entering into the Mind Realm, mentally preparing himself for what was to come.

.*.*.*.

_Caiellis opened his eyes, seeing nothing around him and feeling as if he was moving through thick tar. He quickly realised that he couldn't breath, though his eyes didn't sting like they would if he was in water. He felt his small lungs burning, as if suddenly reacting to his revelation, and desperately swam upwards, knowing that although nothing that hurt him in this realm was carried over death was permanent._

_He could leave at any time, but that would achieve nothing, pulling himself back into reality with nothing to show for it. No, he needed to endure as long as possible, though drowning in his own mind would not be the death he would choose. _

_Cai had no indication of when he would reach the surface, and felt his body shutting down as the lack of oxygen put an even greater darkness at the edges of his vision. He breached the dark water, gasping for breath, and looked about him. He was in a small cave, the rock barely a single foot above him. There was nothing in the cavern, absolutely nothing, just bare rock. The only way was downwards._

_The Lucerna gave a few seconds for his body to recover, and thought about the other trials the Angel of the Black Sun had set for him, some were short whilst others could last hours, and there was no discernible link between them. Or at least, none that Caiellis could figure out. Why couldn't his have been as simple as everyone else's? All Alex had to do was win a battle and lead his army to victory against demons before Aurelia revealed herself to him._

No. Thoughts of jealously will not help. Your brother tried just as hard as you are doing,_ Caiellis sternly reprimanded himself, annoyed that he had so easily belittled other's trials and pain. Just because Alex passed the test before him wasn't because it was easier (although it was linked slightly to the four year age difference), it just meant he was more of a failure._

_Happy thoughts like these on his mind, the boy tested the amount of mana he could harness – none at all – and took a deep breath, plunging under the watery abyss again. __This time, the liquid was icy cold, freezing his limbs and sending sharp pains through his body – he was only clothed in underpants, and his thin limbs shook in the cold of the water._

_He swam deeper, his vision obscured by the darkness, and felt the lack of life-giving oxygen beginning to make itself known in the suffocating sensation. He looked for anything, __**anything**__, that could suggest progress, but all he could see was the all-consuming blackness. Cai desperately needed to breath, but pressed on, ignoring the parts of his mind screaming for air. _

_Suddenly, he began to see a light. Emboldened, the prince forced his body forwards, black spots beginning to form in his sight. He let out a muffled scream of strangled pain as the water abruptly became scathingly hot, burning his eyes and his pale skin._

_The pain was immense, and the voices in his head telling him to pull up for air became louder. Cai knew that he couldn't continue in his current oxygen-deprived condition and swan up to the surface. He bounced off something solid, and yelped with startled shock when a wall of rock met him, trapping him underwater and forcing to do downwards or leave the Mind Realm._

_He silence his mind's pleas for escape and air, feeling his body about to give out. Caiellis would have to leave soon, before he drowned._

_WHY CAN'T I JUST DO IT? He shrieked in his mind, and the water responded to his desperation, forcing him further downwards at in increased rate while also heightening the amount of pain he felt. __He could feel his skin peeling off in the steaming heat, exposing the tender flesh beneath._

_I. WILL. NOT. GIVE. IN. Caiellis shouted. He had never felt so determined before – he was going to die here, but didn't care. All he wanted to do __was pass the challenge, he safety came second. He had been able to consider it rationally, he would have known that it was paradoxical to value something that directly depended on his life to be more important than that life, but right now he didn't care._

_I WILL NOT GIVE IN. He pushed himself downwards, seeing the light get closer and closer – he could see am angel with black wings kneeling in front of an altar, seemingly unaffected by the physics of the water rushing around her._

.*.*.*.

Kaled watched exasperatedly as he saw Caiellis's Mind Realm through the screen – the lesson had finished, Shaman Trostani knowing that she wouldn't be able to teach the class much whilst their fellow students suffered at the back. Cai was the only one still in his realm – the others hadn't had difficult trials to pass, they were just weak-minded and scared Welkalite brats, not really attempting it properly before. Once again Kaled thought back to how the Welkas Empire had chosen its students – only allowing the wealthy to attend, thus placing their power the definite lowest in the Scholaria Magnus, as each other nation chose their strongest.

His heart went out to his friend – Caiellis was sweating profusely, mimicking the heat in his test, and was breathing very fast in short inhalations, the heart-rate monitor pinging at a dangerously fast rate. He watched as the boy's pale skin blistered and burnt off, turning to Doctor Argyle, who observed the trial dispassionately. Cai started to hyperventilate and whimpered unconsciously in pain, and Kaled had a flashback to Regata's test – nowhere near as difficult or painful as this.

"We need to help him," he pleaded, and the Yentarian shot him a condescending glance.

"Caiellis can leave whenever he wants to," the doctor uttered mechanically, and Kaled felt his temper raise at this man's obvious uncaring attitude towards his roommate.

"What if he can't? He's going to die!" Kaled shouted, attracting the attention of the other students, who instantly swarmed around Cai's bay. He saw how the boy was shuddering, both on the screen and in reality, and noticed how he was getting closer to the light. He was still undecided, knowing that Alexander would want him to help his little brother if he was in danger, but also realising that what the doctor said was correct – he could exit the Mind Realm himself.

Kaled's mind was instantly set on one course of action when the boy let out an agonised and desperate scream of absolute pain. Doctor Argyle didn't impede his progress when he moved next to the bed and abruptly ripped the wires out of the visor on Cai's head.

.*.*.*.

_I WILL NOT GIVE IN. He repeated to himself, the single-minded determination to succeed pushing aside all concerns of safety and health as he swam closer to the angel, his eyelids peeling off as he moved his hand to her shoulder. He had done it. Finally, he had done it. Relief flooded through his body, his hand brushing against the angel and-_

Caiellis screamed in shock and torment when he jolted back into reality, his body feeling absolutely exhausted but his mind alight with rage. He ripped off the visor, the prince's vision readjusting to the classroom. Kaled stood next to him, a concerned expression on his face, holding the disconnected wires in each hand. The fury inside of him, the pain of failure and of being thwarted so close to his goal, focused on this new target.

He roared in primal anger and shot out a beam of light/dark from his hand, smashing the boy into the wall and making him yell in torture. Cai shrieked, the pent up anger at constantly failing releasing in a single instant, and the teachers reacted instantly, a shield of Blue mana reinforced by vines of Green nullifying his magic. The youngest Lucerna jumped off the bed, feeling more tired than ever and just wanting to go back to sleep or start hurting himself, and ran out of the door, the teachers preventing other students from following.

Kaled stared open-mouthed in shock at the prince's departure, making to run after him, but felt a vine wrap around his leg and deposit the fifteen year old back in the classroom.

"Let me go after him!" he raged, and the shaman and doctor ignored him, moving towards the emergency communication system. He felt a calming hand on his shoulder and soothing essence move through his body.

"No, Kaled, he needs time alone. You've done enough," Annia told him, reproach and shock in equal quantities in her voice.

"Why did he react so badly? All he was doing was trying to pass his Summoning. He didn't have to kill himself for it," Kaled snapped back, and Annia shook her head despairingly.

"You don't understand him. You don't have the constant feeling of pressure that he does."

"And when did you become so close with Cai?" he questioned, turning his burning hazel eyes upon the girl, who continued to shake her head.

"Don't be stupid. He is royalty. He will have been expected to pass the Summoning long ago."

.*.*.*.

Aurelia's blades clashed with the clone of her, the replica bellowing the same battle cry as the fiery angel. She snarled in fury, but there was nothing she could do – this upstart Yentarian brat had dared to use his cowardly shape-shifting Summoning of her in a disgusting imitation that had the exact same strength.

Alex knew that as his angel's power was matched, it would come down to him defeating Ellan, and his greater familiarity with his Summoning. He swung a flaming fist at the tall Yentarian, who turned the scorching fire into hissing steam with a shield of water. Ellan's Summoning could be immensely powerful, automatically equalling the power of the Sancturia creatures, and of course the boy had predicted that Alexander would go for him.

"Alexander Ensis Lucerna," Miss Gloria's clipped tone rang out, her practised voice splitting through the clamour of the battling students – one thing that had made her an excellent commander in the armies of Civitas Sol during the civil war. The seventeen year old instantly stopped his assault, suddenly glad that Ellan had the foresight to do as well, and dismissed Aurelia. He left the cage and walked briskly to the Lucaelian teacher, ignoring the glare Sergeant Tarkos gave him – he hoped the grizzled man wasn't treating his little brother the same way.

"Alex, your brother has left the school premises, bleeding a huge amount of uncontrolled mana after he was forcefully unplugged from a Summoning Bay at the cusp of completing the trial. It was unanimously agreed that you should be the one to retrieve him – who knows how he would react to anyone else?" the combat teacher delivered the speech fast but not rushed, although there was a slight hint of panic to her voice – she would definitely live the rest of her life in shame if one of the king's sons lost his life at the Scholaria.

"Where is he?" Alex demanded urgently, and Gloria shrugged her shoulders, admitting, "We don't know. However, we have a map of the island, so we were hoping that you would be able to pinpoint his location, since you know him so well. I doubt that Lord Caiellis will have chosen somewhere dangerous."

She noticed the slip of the tongue, cursing herself for it but glad that no-one was paying attention to that. The staff of the academy were not supposed to show favouritism. Gloria handed the frantic-looking big brother a map of the Scholaria and the surrounding area, and Alex let his big brother instinct kick in, scanning his eyes over the locations that Caiellis might go – he could be temperamental at times, but when the boy was frustrated with himself he normally went somewhere secluded and quiet where he could think. There!

Alex thanked his teacher for the map and quickly ran out of the room, desperately praying that he knew his brother as well as he thought he did.

.*.*.*.

Caiellis plunged his hand into the cold water, the purifying White mana removing the minute possibility of the flowing water being poisoned, and cupped it to his lips, feeling the refreshing liquid flow through his body. He had needed a drink. His throat was raw from screaming. Cai had been so close. _So close!_ He breathed deeply, inhaling and exhaling slowly, letting the anger pour off his in shuddering waves. The boy pulled his knees up to his chest, huddled and small, silently watching the waterfall splash into the pool he was sat next to.

He had remembered the place from analysing the map, a relatively close area outside of the school grounds named Tranquillity's Descent, a waterfall that marked the mid point of one of many rivers criss-crossing the island. Large trees shrouded the area from the heat of the sun, though the light shone through in shafts onto the pool, illuminating the waters and bouncing off it in an iridescent display of natural beauty, brightening the azure lotus flowers that floated on the colourful waters.

Many Unbound creatures of different mana-alignments lived outside of the academy, but the youngest Lucerna hadn't encountered any, though he had the Sword of Glass at the ready should he. They were probably terrified of him, as for a while he had been unable to control the amount of energy he was releasing. Cai assumed it was one of the side effects of being forcefully disconnected from his Mind Realm, but was scared of the shadows that had seeped out of his footsteps, decaying plants as he walked past.

Caiellis picked up a calm blue lotus flower, his hands still shaking, and was happy when it didn't wither and die. That meant he had properly managed to halt the flow of darkness coming from within. He twirled it slowly, watching the petals slide elegantly through the air. It would be a perfect present for Annia.

The slight Lucaelian shut his eyes, blocking out the suicidal and frustrated thoughts baying for attention in his mind, and concentrated on the quiet sound of the rushing water. He began to spin the ornate knife in his hands, he had disobeyed his father and brother in bringing the weapon here, and had considered doing so again and cutting himself, to alleviate the feeling of extreme self-worthlessness and crushing pressure, worse than he had ever experienced before, but now he knew that wouldn't be necessary.

Cai heard the sounds of footsteps crunching through the undergrowth, becoming alert and then relaxing when he realised that if something or someone was going to attack him, they would have attempted to approach with significantly more subtlety. He felt a large, strong hand gently but still forcefully encircle the wrist with the knife and prevent the arm from moving.

"Let's put that away, little brother," a comforting voice spoke softly, and Caiellis opened his eyes, turning around to see Alexander looking lovingly down at him. Evidently the teachers had decided upon sending his big brother after the wayward prince, knowing how well they got on and maybe realising that Alex was the only person that truly understood him, proven again by his accuracy in finding Caiellis.

The younger brother smiled up at his elder and flicked his wrist, tossing the knife into the water. He silently watched it sink for a few seconds, before turning to Alexander, who had let go and was getting down to sit beside him.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" the older boy asked, relieved that he had actually found his younger brother and that Caiellis hadn't harmed himself. He wrapped an arm around his shoulders, feeling the slender teenager trembling and brotherly concern flooding his mind. It must have been extremely painful for the youngest son of King Marik, being immeasurably close to the thing that had caused him immense amounts of emotional pain the last few years, especially in the last month.

"Kaled pulled me out of the Mind Realm. Just as I was about to do it," he whispered. Cai's voice shook and he looked up into Alex's face, who noticed how exhausted and drained his little brother was – this was more than any other occasion he had strived to complete the Summoning. The boy needed rest, but more than that, he needed someone to remind him that he was loved and wanted. Caiellis's emerald green orbs clearly told his elder sibling that.

"I'm sure he wouldn't have done it unless you needed help. I know that you are angry and infuriated, but I am glad that he did it. You are far more important to a lot of people than your stupid Summoning. I know you, Caiellis. You will have almost died attempting it, and I for one certainly never want to live in a world without my little buddy," Alex ruffled his hair affectionately, and his heart leapt when he saw Cai's eyes lighten up at his little speech.

"That was cringe-worthy," Caiellis joked, and his brother thumped him on the arm hard. "You know I'm not good at girly things, that is your speciality," he teased back, and Cai rubbed his arm. They both laughed and sat wordlessly, happy in each other's company.

After a minute of absolute silence, the only sound the perpetual rushing of water, Alex was about to speak, suggesting that they go back, when Cai's hand shot out and went across his mouth, the smaller boy not even glancing up from the shimmering pool. Discerning that Caiellis was in his "extreme thought" mode, Alexander ignored the idea that popped into his head, his brother would be extremely displeased with him should he do that. Suffice to say, it involved a shove and freezing cold water.

After a few seconds, Cai peeked up at him, puppy eyes already primed and available for deployment, and Alex understood then that his little brother was going to ask him something that he would disprove of.

"I am going to try the Summoning again," the youngest Lucerna stated confidently like it was an undisputed fact – that just highlighted the change he had undergone in the last month and when he entered his teenage years, a younger Caiellis would have timidly asked his brother a favour and Alex would probably turn him down unless he used his cuteness to his advantage. Now, the boy uttered it like a royal pronouncement, as if pretending that his big brother wasn't going to argue with him.

"Fat chance, little man. You are worn out. You can try again tomorrow, but right now you need rest," Alex shot back, and Cai pushed himself to his feet, glaring defiantly back at his sibling. "You can't stop me."

"Are you sure about that, baby brother?" the older boy also rose, towering over his little brother, Cai's head barely reaching the middle of his chest and his limbs significantly thinner than those of his muscular brother. Quickly assessing that his tactic of trying to butt heads with his brother directly wasn't working, he switched his eyes to be more accusatory.

"You say that you love me, and care about me, but when I need to do something you stop me!" he shouted, accidentally letting some of the emotion he thought he had carefully put away into his voice. Alex sighed and put his hands on Caiellis's shoulders, the younger boy about to twist away angrily when he increased the pressure of his grip, causing his younger brother to gasp in pain slightly. _When was Cai going to understand that he was killing himself? _The eldest son hated causing his younger brother pain like this, but he needed to make the boy realise that the way he constantly endeavoured to pass the trial was wrong.

"You will not attempt the test. Understand?" he asked calmly, his voice harsh but free of negative emotion. Caiellis glared back at him and tried to pull away, but his brother squeezed harder still and he whimpered as he felt bones being crushed.

"Understand?" Alex repeated, shaking the smaller boy, whose face was screwed up in pain. Cai nodded frantically and Alexander released him, feeling guilt worm its way into his thoughts when he saw his little brother's chest hitching up and down, the prince trying not to cry or look any more pathetic.

He moved forwards to comfort him, and jumped back when Caiellis screamed: "**WHY WON'Y YOU JUST LET ME DO IT**?"

Stunned, Alex felt adrenaline rush into his body when he sensed magic energies, fuelled by extremely powerful emotions, in his brother's voice, suddenly realising just **how much** Cai wanted to do it this time. Tears streamed down Cai's face, and his older brother knew that he saw him at his weakest, but also at his strongest. He slowly inched towards the boy, kneeling down to his height and brushing the tears from his eyes, flinching when a flash of energy erupted from the Black Sun birthmark when he touched it.

"If you feel that strongly about it, then I'm definitely not going to stop you," he acquiesced, and Cai's face split into a tired smile, still shaking from his loud release.

"However," he continued, suddenly wrapping a hand around the boy's thin throat and effortlessly lifting him off the ground, pressing Cai against a tree. "You _will _not endanger yourself doing this, you _will_ leave as soon as it becomes too hard for you."

He had first discovered that he could do this to Caiellis a few years ago, when they had been "experimenting" with wrestling moves Tristram had taught them and got into a fight in their shared bedroom. Alex had enjoyed the feeling of the absolute power he had over his little brother's life, and inadvertently choked him unconscious, increasing the pressure of his grip every time Cai pleaded with him to let go or tried to force him off.

However, the sight of his baby brother, unbreathing and lips cold and blue, had terrified him, and he had screamed for Tybalt and Tristram to come help, but by the time they came Caiellis was already awake. Needless to say, the younger boy hadn't enjoyed being choked out, scared of his brother for a whole week afterwards. Right now, he only put enough pressure on to stop him breathing and not crush his throat – he would go unconscious eventually, but it gave him more than enough time to convey the seriousness of his point.

Cai couldn't breathe, his big brother's hand clamped around his windpipe and his legs in the air. He tried to pull the hand away, open up his lungs to oxygen, but his older brother was far stronger than he was and Cai's small hands failed to even move Alex's single one.

Alexander hated the fact that he had hurt his little brother and hated seeing Caiellis like this, detesting the situation even more knowing that he was the object of his brother's terror, but needed to emphasise that Cai _would not_ allow himself to get hurt.

"Promise me that, little brother," Alexander commanded in a comforting voice completely at odds with his current actions, but he needed to ensure that his baby brother knew he wasn't trying to kill him.

Caiellis nodded, fear freezing his body and his mind flashbacking to the last time his brother did this. Alex quickly let him go, and the smaller boy fell to his knees, gasping for breath. The middle Lucerna was glad that he didn't move away when Alex rubbed soothing circles on his back.

"Sorry about that, but you need to realise that your life is worth way more than the "honour of the family" or any other crap like that," Alexander apologised profusely, and Cai nodded knowingly and forgave him for it. He sat down on the floor and told his brother he could hold him if he wanted – Alex squeezed his hand and sat beside him, ensuring that he wasn't disrupting anything. Cai beamed at him, a red hand mark on the pale flesh of his neck, saying: "It's fine, Alexander. I understand why you did that. It just scared me a bit."

Alex nodded and replied: "You know I hate hurting you. Whenever I seem harsh or cause you pain, it's just because I need to show you something. That's just how big brothers are."

"I'm going to begin," Caiellis announced, the Mind Realm coming to him much naturally without the Summoning Bay's distracting equipment. He was immeasurably glad that there were no screens this time around, there was no way Alex would let him do this if he knew what he was about to do.

.*.*.*.

_His eyes snapped open, and he examined his surroundings. It looked like Cai was in the entrance of some grand castle, and weird creations of rotating blades attached to demonic faces floated towards him. This challenge would be simple – defeat the enemies, get to the destination. Except it wouldn't work like that, not now he knew the true link between each individual trial._

_He looked down at himself – clothed in light leather armour, and with a short-sword at his waist. Excellent. Cai felt a slight tremor of trepidation flow through him – if he was wrong, the Alexander would never forgive himself. The boy swiftly drew the sword, ignoring the proximity of the creatures, and sliced the blade across his own throat._

_.*.*.*._

_For the second time, Cai's emerald orbs opened. He was in the large interior of an empty cathedral – incredibly ornate and detailed. The boy could faintly perceive singing voices and praying whispers but whenever he looked in their direction, they faded away and started anew at the opposite side of the chapel._

_He looked down the row of seats and into the front – there, kneeling in front a golden altar and bathed in the purple light of a stained glass window depicting the Black Sun passing judgement upon the guilty, was an angel, the same one from earlier._

_The boy paced forwards, and she rose, turning around to look at him. She was majestic but also terrifying, wearing golden armour and framed by huge black wings the colour of midnight. In one hand she held a golden chain, in the other a gigantic and elaborate scythe the size of her. The heel was a shining golden Black Sun, with a large curved blade extending out from it. Ornate and wing-like protrusions from her collar framed her beautiful face, a cascade of black hair flowing behind it._

__She had pale features, black eyes surrounded by purple eyelids and golden tears etched underneath them – also in the centre of her forehead was a spherical gemstone of the same colour. Her eyes were orbs of darkness that reflected the prince's purity but also his potential for evil, the curse of the Black Sun that had consumed King Xarius and could very well destroy him if the prince wasn't careful - the angel had promised to obey the "Emperor of Light's" demands to the letter, and while all others of the Sisterhoods would refuse to execute acts of darkness, the Angel of the Black Sun would do whatever he wanted, becoming a harbinger of death and misery more akin to a demon than a seraphim.__

_ Cai could sense the light in her, but also the darkness – both were combined however, not just both present and not separated, the White and Black mana fused representing everlasting life and power, the balance between light and darkness, that one could use to their own ends or aid those around them. _

"_So you've arrived," she uttered, her voice like honey but with a sinister undertone, also inflected with a sense of melancholy, "My name is Orzhova, the angel of the Black Sun."_

"_Yes, I passed the test you set for me. Now the contract will be signed," Caiellis smiled triumphantly, trying not to seen arrogant at his first meeting with Orzhova but supposing that she already knew everything about him. He couldn't help but feel slightly anxious in his moment of victory - this angel had been the cause of the largest catastrophe in Lucaelian history, eclipsing even Johnias's revolt and attempted coup d'etat._

_She sighed wearily, and said "Fine, I shall sign your beloved contract. But rest assured, the real trial is only just beginning."_

* * *

><p>New Summonings in this chapter:<p>

Caiellis Noctis Lucerna: Deathpact Angel

Ellan Artuis: Clone


	8. Angelic Beckoning

Alex held his comatose brother upright, one hand on the back of his brown hair and the other squeezing the boy's small hand. Caiellis was breathing regularly now, appearing as though he was in a peaceful sleep, though nothing could be further from the truth. The prince had ventured into his Mind Realm the second time that day, Alex's warnings about him being far too exhausted to be attempting the Summoning trial going unheeded.

A couple of minutes ago, Cai had gasped in pain and started convulsing – his older brother had tried to comfort him but it was up to his little brother to remove himself from the danger. The middle Lucerna hoped that he had imparted the seriousness of the situation to his brother when he strangled him; Caiellis had promised to exit the Mind Realm if he went into anything he couldn't handle, but knowing his brother the boy wouldn't give up until absolutely necessary. If there was one trait that all Lucernas seemed to possess, it would certainly be stubbornness.

Now his baby brother had calmed down, and Alex assumed that he had overcome whatever challenged him. He stroked the smaller boy's hair fondly, his little brother the one person in his life that he felt closest to. He definitely meant what he had said earlier, currently Caiellis was the most precious person in his life. Alexander had often dated girls despite the fact his father had forbidden his sons from having a partner until they were eighteen – Marik hadn't exactly been there to stop him during the civil war.

Many girls were attracted to him due to his confidence, charming looks (though he feared that his little brother was on the road to beating him there) and personality, although he had never quite found anything in them that made him want to stay with them. Alexander had often cancelled dates and meetings when his younger brother wanted to spend time with him – at one point in his life he would have considered that especially lame, but as he got older he realised just how much he enjoyed being with the little man and teaching him about the world. Tristram and Tybalt had been excellent mentors and protectors of the royal sons, but it had been up to Alex to teach Caiellis about life as an adolescent. While the older men educated him on how to properly wield a sword and rule a kingdom, Alex had taught him about girls and friendship.

Caiellis was his little brother, the person that he was supposed to protect, the person that he made mistakes for so that he didn't have to suffer through them himself, his best friend and rival. And to think some of the Light-Bearers (come to think of it, the majority of those who had suggested it were now aligned with Johnias) had insisted that his infant brother be killed just because of his Summoning.

The older brother heard a crackle of energy and peered down at his sibling – coruscating arcs of golden and purple lightning were sparking over the birthmark on his right cheek. Alex had never seen that before, and automatically held his little brother closer, ignoring the slight sting the mana pouring out of the Black Sun caused as he increased his proximity.

Abruptly, Caiellis's eyes opened, one pupil filled with holy light while the other suffused in abyssal blackness. He stared straight forwards for a few seconds, power billowing around him, and Alex rolled back, a shield of White and Red mana blocking the effects of the tempest beginning to form around Cai. Shadows swirled around him, but as the prince turned his head upwards a pillar of pale light spilled out from the heavens, illuminating him in White mana.

Instead of dispelling the shadows, the light began to mix with them, coating some in shining gold while other patches of the darkness wrapped around the luminescence. As if by some sudden command, the darkness and the light poured into Caiellis who stood unaffected by the maelstrom of tenebrosity mixed with radiance. Alex had to shield his face to avoid being blinded, his mind still alert and ready to rush to the aid of his brother.

A few seconds of quiet passed, and he gingerly removed the conjured mana shield, his eyes immediately fixing on Caiellis. The boy was stood still, calmness emanating from him in the aftermath of the display. His head slowly turned towards Alexander, Cai's eyes back to their normal emerald-green lustre – instead of panic, fear or pain, all they showed was positivity – not an ecstatic happiness, but a quiet contentment.

Then a small smile split his young face, a genuine grin of joy that made Alex's heart sore. _He's done it!_ It was the most cheerful he had seen his little brother in a long time, and the middle Lucerna felt pride well up inside of him.

"I did it," he announced softly. The emotions he experienced felt strange to Caiellis – he had assumed he'd be delighted, and despite Orzhova's ominous declaration playing over in his mind, he knew that wasn't blocking the feelings of joy. He certainly felt excited, happy, but didn't want to punch the air in triumph or jump in joy or anything. It wasn't as if he was unhappy, or felt hollow, he just didn't think finally achieving something that had made he go as far as devaluing his own life, push away his brother who had always been there for him and self-harm wouldn't come with a burst of euphoria. He felt tired, but quietly happy. That would have to do.

Cai could say that he felt a weight lift off his shoulders, but that would be a lie – he had realised that the pressure would always be there, it was a part of being royalty. But the crushing felt much less intense.

The boy felt himself being lifted into the air – of course Alexander would be overjoyed, revelling in his little brother's achievement. He was soon wrapped in a bone-crushing hug, and seeing his brother's blue eyes shining in merriment brought a greater sense of satisfaction to Caiellis.

"I'm proud of you squirt!" he declared loudly, as he put him down, and his little brother smirked. How many nicknames did he have again? Alex's excited eyes met his, and the seventeen year old enthusiastically asked: "Are you going to Summon her then?"

"Her name is Orzhova, and I have nowhere near enough mana for that." Caiellis admitted – he could barely even stand up. Attempting a single trial in a day drained him, consigning him to waste the rest of the day resting, and the one he did the first time that day was by far worse than any he had experienced prior. Alex nodded understandingly, swiftly appreciating that Caiellis was putting on a show of endurance now by just staying on his feet.

"Can I say "I told you so!"?" Alexander snickered, his little brother rolling his eyes.

"I was right about doing it a second time though, don't forget that."

"Yeah, sorry about earlier," Alex apologised, although Cai had already pardoned him for it, comprehending why his older brother had hurt him. "Why don't you stop acting so tough for a moment and sit down? Trust me, your big brother's lap is a lot more comfortable than standing up when you're exhausted."

Cai shot an annoyed glance at him, petulantly sitting away from his brother, muttering, "I'm not five."

"Fine, be that way. I'll just have to eat the Honey-Liquorice on my own then," Alexander mock sighed, grinning mischievously when he saw Cai's eyes light up in surprise. He took out the sweets – they were his little brother's absolute favourite, although they were in very short supply in Lucael. When he had seen them in the academy shop, he knew that he just had to purchase them – luckily whatever was in the sugary liquorice stopped it from going off after a day in his jacket pocket, as he had quickly forgotten about them. Alex sat down next to Caiellis, not wanting his brother to tire himself out further, and slowly unwrapped the packet, smirking as he saw the boy's eyes widen despite himself.

He knew how much his baby brother absolutely adored the sweets, but he hadn't eaten them since his seventh birthday. Before that, when their mother was still alive, toddler Caiellis had gorged upon a jar of them that Emili accidentally left open, going completely hyper and almost seriously injuring himself by falling down the palace staircase. The boy's mother had restricted the sweets for birthdays and special occasions, and they stuck to that rule ever since, even though there was no chance that Caiellis would eat too many of them.

"Where did you get them?" the boy asked in awe of his brother's powers to manage to constantly please him, and Alexander laughed and winked conspiratorially.

"Big brother secret," he teased, tapping the vaguely irritated boy on the nose.

"May I repeat the fact that I am no longer five years of age?"

"Nope," Alex replied, answering the clearly rhetorical question just to tease his brother further.

After a few minutes of excitedly devouring the Honey-liquorice, Alexander revising his opinion on his little brother's appetite for the sweets, the blonde pulled out a circular device, which was instantly analysed by Caiellis.

"What is that?" he inquired, his soft voice weary, and Alexander smiled.

"A mana-communicator. Dad gave it to me. Said we should use it to contact him in an emergency, or if something important happened. This definitely classifies as important," he insisted as soon as he saw Cai about to object – his little brother obviously didn't want to speak to the king.

"Why didn't he give us each one?"

"He only had one, and obviously the big brother is more mature and sensible, so he gave it to me."

"Keep telling yourself that," Caiellis retorted sarcastically, and Alex laughed good-naturedly.

"Anyway, we're going to speak to him."

.*.*.*.

Marik Ensis Lucerna sat in the small room, the pen in his hands mechanically scrawling over the documents in front of him – the slips of paper represented his orders to the two leaders of each other city, and would be sent by monorail the following day. It was currently the fastest way of transferring information until the large-scale communicators were finished and installed. The king technically didn't have to spend time writing out the orders, just emblazon it with the seal of Lucerna after reviewing it, but Marik felt as if it was his duty to painstakingly transcribe his orders onto paper.

Many of the Hierarchs were asking for more resources from Capitalia Lux to help build back the metropolises now the civil war had ended, but one particular message that caught his eyes was from Aretis. Civitas Sol, the closest city to the border between Lucael and Welkas, had been plagued recently by bandits from the New Empire, although the diplomats and representatives from there vigorously denied that their "Orders" were associated with them.

However, the frequency of attacks on supply lines and lone travellers and traders between the two nations had increased, the bandits becoming more and more brazen after the Kingdom of Light had been forced to divert its military inwards to deal with the more pressing threat of traitors.

Talks between the two factions had become more heated, trade-lines were cancelled, and tension rose – Marik knew if nothing changed it would only be a matter of time before he was required to declare war. Some of the Light-bearers, most notably Guardian Oleic of the aforementioned City of the Sun and Hierarch Francis of Gol, were already baying for war, but Marik would wait to see if diplomacy could prevail. He didn't want to throw his people into another war, although he could clearly see where the two were coming from – a decisive victory would certainly be preferable to a protracted conflict.

Zoned out, the king didn't notice the mana-communicator in his pocket beeping repeatedly until at least thirty seconds after it started. Jolting into action, Marik instantly fished the circular apparatus out and placed it on the desk, brightening the grey room with a flash of White mana that allowed him to speak to his children. He dearly hoped it wasn't something urgent.

"Dad," Alexander's voice cut across the room, exactly the same sound as if his son was sat right next to him – the benefits of being firm allies with the Yentarian Republic were wonderful indeed. Marik couldn't detect anything wrong with Alex's tone, so assumed the talk had been started because of something important but not harmful.

"Hello son. It's nice to speak to you again. Was there something you wanted to talk about?" he asked pleasantly, trying to keep irritation that had sprung from nowhere out of his voice – it wasn't like his sons were pestering him, far from it, and the paperwork could wait.

Alex replied quickly with: "Cai needs to speak to you." Marik's interest piqued and he leaned forwards, in spite of the fact that it wouldn't actually increase the volume of the words. He felt a pang of regret when he heard his youngest pleading: "Can't you just tell him?" Evidently the boy still wasn't ready to accept him quite yet; it had been foolish to assume that just because the king gave him a present Caiellis would instantly open up to him. He listened as he heard a shuffle of limbs and a grunt of annoyance.

"Father," Caiellis's soft voice sounded weary but pleased in the same instance, but fatherly concern made Marik narrow his eyes.

"Are you alright? You sound strained," the king inquired, and his son sighed.

"That's because," he responded tiredly, "Alex has me in a headlock."

"Oh," Marik chuckled quietly. Clearly the big brother had needed to use force to make his youngest talk to him. He automatically warned: "Don't hurt your brother, Alexander."

"Yeah, yeah." was his sardonic reply, and Marik detected the sound of hair being ruffled a little too roughly for the recipient's liking.

"I completed the Summoning. Orzhova is mine to command," Caiellis suddenly proclaimed, happiness warring with exhaustion in his tone, and the king felt a large smile work its way onto his pale features. He felt immensely proud, but also a bit annoyed – the second his later-born left the pressure from his father, he passed the trial.

"How did you do it? Did one of the different tests simply react to you more, or was there a link between them?"

"You never told me they were all unique!" Alexander cried indignantly, Caiellis quickly apologising to his big brother. "Don't worry, it's fine," the older boy instantly placated, he had forgotten just how tired his younger sibling was.

"Before I continue," Caiellis said, "Alex, promise not to beat me up for this."

"I can't promise that I won't kick your skinny ass some time in the future, but right now I won't. Ok?"

"That will have to do. Anyway, the first time I attempted Orzhova's trial today, the more pain I was under the closer I seemed to get to her. I almost died doing it, but was about to finish it when someone unplugged the Summoning Bay, a piece of equipment that allows others to monitor your health and watch your progress," Caiellis explained efficiently, "After storming off as I couldn't control my mana for a bit, I started thinking about what could possibly link the different trials – there was nothing apart from one thing."

"Which was?" Marik questioned expectantly.

"The only common factor in the tests was my mortality," the boy stated gravely, "So at the start of the next trial I ignored the world presented to me and commit suicide."

"You did what?!" both older Lucernas exclaimed loudly in unison, the shock in their voices prevalent. Caiellis rolled his eyes and smiled – Alexander and their dad sounded exactly the same.

"Don't worry, I calculated that the chance of failure was quite low," he lied, the correct figure being more around 50%. As Marik wasn't right next to the boys, he couldn't detect the falsity of his words, but Alex freed him from the headlock and spun the smaller boy around, placing his hands on his skeletal shoulders. The older brother instantly realised that Caiellis was lying when his little sibling avoided eye contact.

"Caiellis, don't lie to us," he admonished softly, "What was the real chance of failure?"

"About half..." the youngest Lucerna muttered under his breath, already anticipating the startled response from his elders, so cutting in before they said anything, "It was my choice to do that, my risk to take. I don't want to hear about how my Summoning is not worth my life, or how I should value myself more. I'm fully aware of that. The risk/reward ratio was fine as long as it got the burden off my back."

"Caiellis..." the king began to say, before his youngest interrupted. "Save it, dad. I've already forgiven you for it."

"Well, I'm extremely proud of you," he beamed, adding, "Proud of you both, in fact. I don't tell either of you nearly enough."

"Thanks, dad," Alex grinned back at the communicator, "See you soon."

The connection ended, and Marik sat wearily down in his chair. Arguing with Caiellis felt like he was arguing with himself – the boy was probably going to become more and more stubborn as he got further into his teenage years, it had taken Marik until he was at least nineteen before he stopped questioning every single one of his father's orders. Johnias had always been the perfect one – the better soldier, diplomat, mage and ruler, while Marik had been the screw up, prone to acting coldly around people. His twin brother had been more warm and emotionally-driven, the kingdom's favourite, maybe that was what had driven him to betray Lucael after the Death-Vision of their father named Marik as the next monarch.

He knew that Johnias had taken an interest in his youngest ever since the boy's birth – at the time it was a blessing, as plenty of the then sixteen Light-bearers treated the infant with suspicion due to the hated Angel of the Black Sun returning for the first time. Now he realised that Johnias wanted Caiellis because of the boy's innate and almost unheard of White and Black mana, whilst the treacherous brother himself had been forced to sacrifice his Summoning to obtain the latter, losing the ability to use the former.

Marik wondered where the betrayer was – it would have been risky and fool-hardy of him to venture into the abyss and vengefully hunt his twin down, although he would have done so without the council of his greatest advisers and friends.

.*.*.*.

"I can't believe you sometimes," Alexander grumbled when the connection ended, and Caiellis gave him an innocent smile. "Well, are we going to head back now? I'll ask the teachers to see if you can rest for the remainder of the day."

"Na-ah," the boy shook his head slightly childishly, which made his brother smirk. "I'm fine. I can go back to lessons."

"You certainly look fine-" Alex was cut off when Cai took one step and tripped, landing face first in the undergrowth. The older boy rolled his eyes at his brother's wilful perseverance, walking towards him and pulling the weightless child onto his back. "Don't complain, baby brother. And no, you aren't five."

"Wait a second," Caiellis suddenly looked back at Tranquillity's Descent, "Can you get one of those lotus flowers? I think Annia would like them."

"Ooh, who's that? Your girlfriend?" Alexander teased, and his little brother went bright red.

"She's just a friend," he refuted quickly, causing the older prince to chuckle.

"It's ok to have a girlfriend little brother, I promise I won't tell dad."

"She's just a friend," the prince repeated sulkily, he wasn't in the mood for teasing and he certainly didn't care for Annia – she was nice, and her fascination for knowledge was something they had in common, but right now Caiellis didn't want a partner – he was only thirteen, he didn't think he was ready for a relationship, and if he was then he wouldn't choose Annia. In fact, he didn't know who he would choose, but just assumed he would realise when he met them.

"Keep telling yourself that," he mimicked Caiellis's voice in a mocking and high pitched tone, hearing his brother sigh tiredly. When they had got back to the academy, it was lunchtime, but the younger Lucerna was allowed to go into his room and straight to bed, not eating anything despite Alexander's insistence.

About two hours after he got underneath the covers, Caiellis finally got to sleep. The second he did so, he felt himself get pulled out of his dreams, a surreal feeling that ended when he opened his eyes. He looked around – he was in the abandoned cathedral where he met Orzhova a few hours ago, illuminated by the oppressive light shining through the stained glass.

"Hello again Caiellis," a melancholy and otherworldly voice echoed throughout the church, and the boy spun around, coming face to face with his Summoning. She glanced at him expressionlessly apart from a deep sadness in her eyes – it was like looking at his own reflection in angelic form.

"Orzhova," he said quietly. He had heard of the interactions between Summoner and Summoning in the former's mind, Alexander himself sometimes interacting with Aurelia in his own personal Mind Realm – his older brother had often told him about it, but Caiellis's Sancturia angel was more divergent. Whilst Aurelia had appeared to many Lucernas over the years and been part of numerous military victories, saving thousands of lives and purging the enemies of Lucael, Orzhova was an entirely different matter – in fact Caiellis was pretty sure his brother's Summoning had been used by Queen Matrice to slay the self-titled Emperor of Light. Xarius had used the angel to fight against other factions, never revealing her potential for Black magic until he became king, using her to murder his own sister and terrorize the population into compliance. She had mass-murdered without even batting an eyelid, though nowhere did it say the angel took pleasure in it.

As if sensing Cai thinking about her violent past, Orzhova's face became noticeably more dejected. "You are probably thinking: "Why couldn't my Summoning be any of the other First Sisterhood Angels – my dad has Akroma and my brother has Aurelia, why couldn't Avacyn, Iona or Razia appeared to me at birth? Even less common angels, like Jenara of Queen Arie, Reya of King Lukem, or even Feather of King Acarn, would be preferable to the Angel of the Black Sun.""

Orzhova seemed hurt, and Caiellis wanted to refute her claims – but he knew that lying to the angel would not achieve anything.

"Well, plenty of my sisters wanted to become the Summoning of such a powerful infant, especially after Aurelia and Akroma had already entered the world. However, I decided to aid you myself – I am disgraced in the Sisterhood, scorned by my sisters and their daughters after what I did in service to Xarius. I sensed a great potential in him, though he proved to be unsuitable – he could only control light or darkness, not both. The balance was never achieved, although I followed his commands dutifully."

"And I am guessing that you have sensed a similar potential in me," Caiellis deduced, the angel nodding solemnly.

"I truly am sorry – you will be hated and feared by your peers just as I am, for nothing under your own control. But I can tell you this: ultimately, Xarius was a greedy fool that wanted nothing more than to become more and more powerful at the expense of everyone else. He had no higher goals, and was even going to offer me in an Infernal Bargain, just like your uncle did to poor Serenity, when he realised that I wasn't able to serve his demands as well as a demon would. I fully admit that I made a mistake in choosing him."

"And yet still you murdered thousands under his orders," the boy stated sombrely, glancing at the floor as Orzhova narrowed her black orbs. She grabbed Caiellis's chin with her free left hand, the skin of her pale fingers smooth and cold, and forced her Summoner to meet her gaze.

"Have you ever wondered why, out of all the remaining First Sisterhood angels, I have appeared to Lucernan infants the least?" Orzhova asked, clearly waiting for a reply although at first Caiellis though she was going to answer herself.

"Because it takes a special type of person to be able to find the balance between light and darkness?" the boy hazarded a guess, thinking that this would be the most logical solution and reminded belatedly about advice given to him by Uncle Tybalt in the past: "_Is that a question or a statement?"_

"Exactly. There are barely any mages with that capacity living, but as angels of the First Sisterhood are restricted to the descendants of Matalis Ortus Lucerna after the foolishness of Serra, known to you as the First Angel, there has only been a single candidate for me. And you are fully aware of how that turned out" Orzhova explained. She released her Summoner and spun around, pointing her glinting scythe in the direction of the gigantic stained glass window behind her, glowing with malevolent light and portraying a single kneeling figure, head bowed towards a huge sun of midnight black that pulsed with darklight.

"Caiellis Noctis Lucerna. You are different to Xarius. I am confident that you will be able to master the White and the Black. I can already tell that you do not fear me as much as the rest of the people – you understand that it is the wielder to blame, not the weapon, no matter how vile. That doesn't apply to demons, but that is a conversation for another time. I suggest that you wake up, I has been a pleasure to finally talk to you."

Caiellis felt himself re-emerging from his mind and was thrust into reality once again. He slowly opened his eyes – the room was gloomy, suggesting that it was evening, and he immediately locked on to another presence sat on the bed opposite him. The adolescent was hunched over, and Cai could hear the sound of pen on paper.

"Kaled?" he inquired, the Welkalite turning around and grinning at him.

"You're awake," he stated. _Humans do like to make these redundant points, _he smiled back, recalling when he had met Annia's sister and said the exact same words. Caiellis sat up in the bed, stretching and yawning loudly – he still felt tired, as anyone does after just waking up, but apart from that was rejuvenated from his ordeal. He glanced at his watch, which was still on, blinking in mild surprise when he saw that it was quarter-past nine. Cai had spent the entire day in bed, which while not uncommon when he had attempted a Summoning in the past, but he had woken up regularly. It must have been the best sleep he'd had in a while.

"Kaled, I'm sorry about earlier. I know why you would do that, and I'm grateful to you for thinking about my safety," he apologised quietly, remembering the events that had lead to him meeting Orzhova – he had accidentally hurt the older boy in his rage.

"It's fine. Turns out you couldn't actually control your mana usage well in that state, so the percentage you sent at me was easily healed by Miss Trostani. Anyway, I'll forget about that 'cause you did the same when I choked you yesterday," Kaled added, putting his pen down and fully spinning round. "Speaking of which..." he motioned to the hand mark on his roommate's throat, Caiellis's hand instinctively massaging it.

"That was Alex. Sometimes he has to be harsh to get me to listen."

"I know, he told me earlier when I asked about it. I just wondered whether it felt alright, or if you wanted a drink," Kaled offered, the water in the bathroom was suitable for drinking.

"Thanks, but I'll get it myself," Caiellis replied, easily walking to the opposite side of the room and accessing the bathroom without falling over. His energy had returned faster than usual. Once he had done so, Cai returned to the comical sight of Kaled puzzling over his work, chewing his pen intently.

"Do you want any help?" he asked the older boy, noticing that the sheet was filled with mathematics problems no doubt set by Doctor Argyle.

"Actually," Kaled responded, getting off the bed and rummaging through his disorganised satchel, pulling out an identical piece of paper, "You have one to do as well, so would you like me to help you, considering you missed the lesson today?"

Caiellis accepted the proffered sheet and examined it, smiling at some of the puzzles detailed there.

"Quadratic algebra. Piece of cake," he smirked, completing the questions in a matter of a single minute – he thoroughly enjoyed maths, finding the application of logic to find an answer mentally stimulating. During their lessons with Tybalt, Alexander had invented a whole slew of nicknames that he only used then: ranging from Adopted Yentarian to Boy Genius.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Kaled exclaimed loudly, instantaneously forgetting about the mathematics "homework". "Tomorrow we have one of our first tests – it is a team-battle exercise for the whole year. 10 teams of 4, one from each faction – me, you, Annia and Freya are a team. They didn't explain it fully, but from what I could gather we have to defeat all the enemies. We are teleported to different sections of the island. I'm really looking forwards to it."

"It certainly sounds interesting," the younger boy mused, pondering the implications of such a challenge – Caiellis wasn't the best at working with others (apart from Alexander), but this would allow him to work out Orzhova's potential and capabilities.

* * *

><p>New Sancturia CreaturesSummonings in this chapter:

Jenna, Asura of War

Razia, Boros Archangel

Iona, Shield of Emeria

Avacyn, Angel of Hope

Reya Dawnbringer

Johnias Otium Lucerna (Formerly) - Angel of Serenity


	9. A First Test

The chimera launched itself at Quioni, the fish-like water elemental turning herself into the blue liquid in response, forcing the goat-headed creature to plough through what was the enemy Summoning and into a tree. It snarled, flapping its wings and pushing off with its hooves, straight into Annia's waiting spell. The jet of water hit it full on in the face, the dispelling magic encoded into the spell slowly unravelling her opponent's Summoning. Meri was another Yentarian youth whose father was a prominent scientist in the League of Xechun, often shunning his son and familial responsibilities in favour of continuing his research.

The boy sent out a tongue of flame into the girl, who emulated the technique Quioni had shown earlier and morphed into water, flowing down to the ground, the tree she had been on burning. The two teams were fighting in a forest area, the vast scale of the trees reminding Annia of the monolithic Erian oaks, although Freya had mentioned that they felt artificial, nothing like the trees of her homeland. The battleground had probably been created by Landshapers, as to not offend some Erians.

She materialised back into human form – her clothes were still on, the fabrics enchanted with spells her mother had invented to allow them to act as Annia did, just in time to see Quioni slam into Meri as the boy was teleported back to the Scholaria, out of the challenge. His Summoning vanished also, the chimera hissing in frustration. Her team had decided that the best way to defeat enemies would be to isolate them individually and duel them, each person fighting with their counterpart in the other teams. Annia had reasoned that as they were more accustomed to the magic of their own nation, they would have an easier time overcoming it.

"An expected outcome," Quioni commented, batting her eyelids and returning to Annia's side.

"Thanks for the help. You can go now," the girl replied, as the other members of the team walked towards her. Obviously Team 6 had been fully removed from the competition; Annia felt slightly sorry for them – none were particularly powerful, especially the spoilt Welkalite girl that Kaled would have had no trouble with.

The current plan wasn't the most preferable option, nor the most efficient, but it was the best she had come up with for the time being – they would easily crush weaker teams, but when others of similar strengths found them, the abject lack of teamwork would definitely be their downfall. She had chosen to be team leader after none of the others offered to take the role, but so far it wasn't working out well.

Kaled insisted on repeatedly arguing with her over every single plan she came up with, and while at least Freya followed orders she wouldn't contribute to the strategizing. Caiellis was respectful and kept his thoughts to himself also, but Annia knew that no matter what plan she came up with, the prince would continue to do as he wished. Luckily, neither Freya nor the youngest of their group had Summoned in their first fight, at least listening to her point about theirs being far more mana intensive – they should be kept in reserve until they had to battle the other top-tier squads.

That meant that while Annia and Kaled may have to aid them against enemies that were too powerful to face without their Summoning, but contemptuously easy with it, their mana wouldn't be expended in the first few battles – potent Sancturia creatures tended to require a vast amount of energy to even Summon, much less sustain.

"That was … easy," Kaled admitted, planting himself at the base of a tree and pulling out his data-sheet. After every battle, Annia maintained that they should leave time to recover and examine the map, finding out where they should go next. For once, Kaled wasn't disputing that.

"We should take this time to make a list of the most formidable foes from each of our nations," Caiellis suggested, remaining standing as Annia and Freya also sat down, the Erian appearing without comment and not electing to join in the discussion immediately. "I'll start – there are three others in this year that can Summon an angel, although all of the Lucaelian students are powerful, so do not underestimate them. However, their angels are "only" Second Sisterhood, which means that Orzhova should probably be able to defeat them, though I have less experience with my Summoning, but they can utilise them more frequently. Mysos Grandé of Cassida Principia is blessed by Iridis, Seraph of the Sword, Kierra Esse of Civitas Sol uses Abigale of the Firemane, and finally Ollis Pax of Gol is graced by Linvala, Keeper of Silence."

"You do know that most of that is gibberish, don't you?" Kaled laughed, stopping when Annia sent a glare his way.

"No, the information is very useful. The Yentarian students we should watch out for are Tai Zhing from the League of Isak, Ianus Mecur of League Uveria and Jayrahl Phransis from League Xechun. However, I think we are all at a similar power level," the girl added, turning to Kaled.

"How does this help, again?" he questioned, "It's not like we can avoid them, and telling each other their names doesn't do anything.

"Actually, it does," Caiellis snapped back, and Kaled retorted irritably with: "Care to explain?"

"We have met these students and seen their powers. Names are more than enough to come up with stratagems for defeating them. Freya, are there any Erians we should worry about?"

"I...I don't know," she stuttered meekly, turning away from the prince's fiery green eyes.

"Glad you could contribute," he spat sarcastically, and she went red. Kaled reached out and clapped him a little too hard around the head, putting his other arm around the Erian's shoulders. "Don't antagonise her."

"Or what, exactly? Any threat you could make won't do anything," he glowered at the older boy, once again irritated by his over-familiarity, and subconsciously annoyed that Kaled was treading on Alexander's territory.

"What is wrong with you all of a sudden? Was that battle a bit too hard for you to handle?" the Welkalite also stood up to his full height, leaning over the younger boy in a slightly intimidating manner. Caiellis's hand reflexively went to the Sword of Glass at his waist, before he forced himself to pull away. That would help no one. Instead of continuing the argument, he exhaled deeply and sat next to Annia.

"I guess I'm just not used to working in a team. I would much prefer to be solo. Sorry if my attitude is causing you problems, I don't mean to," he offered unemotionally, which made his apology seem less than genuine. Kaled narrowed his eyes, figuring that there was no point in saying that unless Cai meant it.

"I have to say, I didn't expect that. Very adult," Kaled meant it as a commendation, expecting Cai to carry on with the quarrelling, but it came out quite patronising. "I meant that as a compliment, by the way."

"Than-"

"Caiellis?" Annia asked, as the boy instantly became silent, his green eyes becoming alert and focussed.

"Freya, do you feel that?" he demanded urgently, sensing the mana build up in the ground around them. The girl nodded quickly, as Annia and Kaled shared a look of confusion.

"Scatter!" Caiellis shouted, leaping with enchanted wings onto a nearby branch, the stocky wood more than thick enough for him to stand on. Kaled Summoned Regata hesitantly, while Freya sent an orb of Green mana into the ground, screaming in panic when it returned to her.

"What are you doing?" Get out!" the Lucaelian yelled, as titanic vines emerged out of the ground, smashing through the earth in an explosive impact and flinging Kaled and Freya off their feet. Their fall was caught by a cushion of Blue mana, Annia's figure forming from scattered droplets of water after she had almost been hit by a huge tendril of plant-matter.

Quioni appeared by her side, the elemental quickly analysing the battle situation as more vines came at them. The creature opened its mouth and sent a spray of corrosive mist at the roots, the acid dissolving them and blocking more from attacking.

A figure leapt through the fog, catching Annia off guard, his conjured White armour hissing as it protected the occupant from the mist. His large great-sword swung at her, and she screamed. A blur darted past her face and the girl heard the scraping sound of metal grinding against metal, though Annia soon realised that was slightly inaccurate.

His sword shining like a beacon, the section surrounding the tip and edges like a shroud of midnight, Caiellis grunted as his opponent, Mysos Grandé, pressed against the younger boy's weaker strength – both boys wielded their weapons two-handed, although Mysos clearly was used to fightining in this manner.

"My prince," he bowed his head respectfully, utterly out of place in the battle, and Kaled hurled a bolt of fire at the Lucaelian from the side, who kicked Cai in the stomach and swiftly deflected it with his sword. The prince staggered back, coughing, and the Principian rounded on him.

Quioni shot upwards, colliding with a descending efreet in an explosion of cascading water, and Annia saw the excited expression of Jayrahl grinning enthusiastically in her direction, floating on a storm cloud next to his Summoning. She noticed Kaled snarl as another Welkalite emerged from the fading mist, Arceus smirking cockily, lightning crackling around him and forming a malicious grin before vanishing back into the storm. It seemed like their opponents were using the same tactics as them, although with far more precision and teamwork.

"Freya! Switch with me, I'll take out the Erian at the back!" she ordered, realising that in a battle of the sky, Jayrahl's djinn would easily defeat her elemental, and Freya would have no way to challenge the other girl with her lack of mobility, whilst Jenna could morph into water and propel herself there.

Freya looked inside the earth, pressing herself to the ground and feeling nature call out to her. She concentrated this energy into herself, sensing the land's fury and it's resentment of the destructive magic of the non-green mana colours. It reverberated through her, and Freya whispered a small supplication, thanking the earth for its strength. Green magic flowed out of her palms and into the waiting ground, which began to rise. A huge, giant-like wooden incarnation of the essence of life itself pushed itself out of the ground, its four massive arms of plant-matter causing the land to crack beneath it. Where its face should be was simply a patch of moss, with antler-horns of bark majestically framing it.

Freya heard Gaean murmur quietly, although its deep voice shuddered through the air, and the elemental gently plucked her off the ground and deposited the girl in the face-cavity – her Summoning was threatening and destructive to the enemies of nature, but ensured that not even a single insect or weed was crushed underfoot. It mumbled something ancient and incoherent to non-shamans, and Freya smiled – Gaean wanted to show the Yentarian that the skies belonged to nature as it took a swipe at the efreet, creaking tremendously as it did so. Jayrahl and his Summoning both quickly dodged the thunderous blow, firing arcs of energy at the towering elemental.

Annia turned herself and Quioni into liquid and shot past the gigantic distraction of Freya, heading towards a circle of Green mana in the distance, where a tall girl swayed as if in some sort of ritual, surrounded by pulsing vines and trees. A few of them shot towards the jets of water, but they were too fast – Annia turned into human form when roots covered in millions of tiny hairs reached towards her. She certainly didn't want to be absorbed into them, and swiftly dispelled the animating force of them – this wasn't the Erian girl's Summoning, just a by-product of it, so was easy to counter, and landed next to her enemy.

Caiellis flipped away from Mysos's attack, the older boy's larger sword carving swathes of air apart as he narrowly avoided the attack. His blade was also enchanted, though not nearly as much as the Sword of Glass, but enough so that the superior weapon wouldn't just slice straight through it. He sent a blinding flash that broke apart on the son of Xathan's defensive magic armour, but was only intended to cause a distraction anyway.

He stepped back, channelling a titanic amount of White mana into a beam of destructive light that lanced from his open palm, golden energy swirling around the prince. The shaft of luminescence gradually increased in intensity as it travelled quickly through the air, hitting Mysos and exploding in a ball of White. Caiellis narrowed his eyes, readying another spell – the mana he detected wasn't his own, and seemed very potent. This was definitely something he should be wary of, the tell-tale light descending from the sky warning the prince about impending danger.

Thin sword held elegantly aloft, shimmering with the energy absorbed from Cai's assault, the angel of Mysos stared aloofly down at the prince. She was clad in shining black armour and framed by wings of the same colour, although those wings were not nearly as dark as Orzhova's. Iridis's long brown hair shone in the light remaining from her Summoning, her perfect features etched with the determination to bring her Summoner victory. She was a small angel, which didn't necessarily equate to power, but still invoked a sense of awe and inspiration from onlookers.

"Prince Caiellis, allow me to introduce Iridis, Seraph of the Sword," Mysos declared proudly, in the manner of ancient Lucaelian tradition. The duels between influential figures, such as Light-bearers, generals or even sometimes members of the royal family, were very formal and respectful battles between two people and their Sancturia creatures. It came as no surprise to Caiellis that Mysos would attempt to be traditional when battling the prince, and he could sense that the older boy had been itching for the opportunity ever since meeting him. Now he had access to the Angel of the Black Sun, he was more than happy to humour him.

"Iridis. You are a daughter of Akroma, Angel of Wrath, correct?" Cai asked, and the seraph nodded briskly, examining her unassuming opponent.

"Sorry about Iridis, but it is part of her code of honour that she does not favour the enemy with words," Mysos apologised – Caiellis fully understood, many of the creatures of darkness that Iridis would be regularly fighting would not be worthy of talk. "The enemy in this case being you, Caiellis."

The thirteen year old was glad he was fighting against Mysos. Any other opponent would have tried to interrupt his Summoning, as it would probably take a comparatively long time considering it was his first and the fact that Orzhova required a huge amount of mana. Not to mention the fact that his angel needed Black magic, which Caiellis had never utilised before, though he definitely was aware of its presence in his body. He planted the Sword of Glass in the ground, the blade becoming inactive as it lost contact with the mana he was providing.

Caiellis took a deep breath, shutting his eyes, relaxing his muscles and taking part in a moment of introspection, looking inside himself and making his way towards the abandoned cathedral in his mind. White mana was conjured first, golden energy spiralling down the left side of his body and turning his right eye into a pool of light, that opened and viewed the world through the Lens of Innocence.

Orzhova had explained the concept to him when he had fallen asleep again – the angel always acted like she was indulging him by talking, although it seemed to Caiellis that she was incredibly lonely and was eager to converse with him after all the years of isolation, considering she forced him to go there (he could still leave whenever he wanted). She had said that to truly master White and Black mana, he would have to view the world differently, gifting him with the enchantments for whenever he Summoned her – Orzhova enigmatically explained that Caiellis would have to find his own way to observe the world, but said that the Lenses would suffice for now.

As Cai felt the purity of the mana well up inside of him, suffusing his limbs with light, he felt the Black Sun on his cheek respond to the build up, converting the light into darkness as it passed through. The youth harnessed this magic, concentrating on negative thoughts to channel the Black mana – he focussed on the emotions of pure, unflinching hatred he had experienced as he watched his mother ripped away from him by the cackling demons.

As a four year old child, the youngest Lucerna had under no circumstances hated something before, but right in that moment he had absolutely despised the existence of the one killing his mother, and while one demon stroked an unconscious eight year old Alexander the other plunged its claws into Emili's heart. Caiellis had never suffered such a feeling of utter loathing before, and had exploded in a blast of pure Black mana, obliterating the demons and falling unconscious himself. When he had woken up, his big brother had been holding him protectively as the men he knew as Uncle Tybalt and ("just" at that time) Tristram, argued loudly in another room, far away from his home.

Cai felt tears dripping down his cheeks and past the birthmark as he relived his most painful memories, the conformation of royalty reacting to his emotions and a sphere of abyssal un-light forming above it. Then the left eye opened, the Lens of Guilt perceiving the world in a riotous display of dark thoughts and shame. He sensed the mana levels rising, the light increasing in intensity to match the tendrils of shadow wrapping around the right side of his body.

He grabbed the orb with both his hands, suffusing it with both new White and extra Black mana, and threw it into the air, where it hovered ominously, expanding as he poured more and more energy into it. The sound of a distant choir could be heard, the hymns rising in volume and drowning out all sound as the sphere became even larger, becoming like a shadowy sun, light and darkness pulsing out of it in equal measures.

Caiellis slid his artefact armament out of the earth, the glass igniting with a significant amount of light, although the edges were substantially darker and dripped with tenebrosity. The radiance of the aerial Black Sun was becoming unbearable, and he etched a pattern into the air directly in front of it with his sword – a large scythe of gloom appearing when he finished the drawing. The youngest Lucerna raised his left hand, focusing more on the vision his right eye, the Lens of Innocence, showed, and White mana coursed through his palm and around the shadow-scythe, flowing around it and coating it in gold, a sun-shaped circle at its heel, its haft still obsidian apart from a golden grip at in the middle and a golden bottom.

An arm, gloved in black leather but leaving pale fingers exposed, reached out of the star of darkness, gripping around the middle of the scythe as the Black Sun, crackling with white and amethyst lightning, began to be absorbed into an angelic figure.

Mysos gaped, open-mouthed in wonder and terror as a First Sisterhood angel, one of the rarest, was Summoned in front of him. Orzhova opened her glittering eyes and spun the scythe, regarding Caiellis haughtily, showing not even the slightest attention to her current enemies.

"My my, that took a long time," she shook her head in amusement, her dark eyes flashing to the other angel aloft across from her. Caiellis knew that this would definitely be the time to strike – he had never felt so powerful in his entire life – as he wouldn't be able to sustain Orzhova for long. That was the problem with First Sisterhood angels, a problem that was mitigated by age and experience, of which Caiellis had pretty much none, they were difficult to Summon and maintain, however a Lucerna's power level went into godlike when they did so. The Lucaelian people maintained that there was nothing that could defeat a Lucerna that has Summoned, and although Cai was always sceptical of their beliefs he felt as if there would be little to prove them wrong. Mana was overflowing out of him, and the prince resisted the sudden incentive to laugh maniacally, instead favouring his subject Mysos with a moderately insane and confident smile.

.*.*.*.

"Marik, my boy, we are doing the right thing," Tybalt assured the restless king, the ancient man still using the moniker despite the fact that his former student was the ruler of the kingdom. The Hierarch of Capitalia Lux had taught Johnias and his twin before he had inherited the role from the previous, and although he now mentored the king's young sons he still offered advice like he was Marik's teacher, never quite calling him anything like "my lord". He had been one of the few people to prefer the quiet and calculated younger twin over his outgoing and cheerful brother, which had helped immensely when Marik had become king.

They were sat in an aerial vehicle of Yentarian origin piloted by one of the Republic – the fastest way of getting to their destination. The passenger compartment was spacious, with more than enough room for the King, Hierarch, Guardian, the Isakian diplomat named Pasko two hand-picked royal guards and Jenna, whom Marik had insisted stay with them after her research period was over. He liked the girl's diligence, honest attitude and work ethic, deciding that she would be the Yentarian representative to Lucael – which had no doubt created great uproar in the Republic.

Just yesterday night, Welkalite forces had eliminated a shipment of vital goods sent from Civitas Sol to Gol Secondus, brutally murdering the soldiers guarding it and the innocent civilian traders and workmen. That had forced Marik's hand, who began mobilizing the forces of each city – the foolish New Empire would be taught the folly of challenging the Kingdom of Light when its cities smouldering in purified ashes. Eager to stop the brewing violence, the Yentarian Republic had quickly tried to placate the leaders of each faction by arguing that negotiations should be tried one last time before outright warfare, if peace was achieved then both nations would be grateful for it.

To do this, they needed neutral territory for diplomacy. They Yentarians suggested the Scholaria Magnus island, as it would prove a good meeting point for the leaders of the Welkalites and Lucaelians, each of which would be arriving in a matter of hours. Marik looked forward to meeting them, and showing them that Lucael should not be messed with.

Many Light-bearers had argued against the course of action, maintaining that it was just a delaying tactic so that Welkas could escape retribution – they also argued against the king going. Marik was confident that he would be safe, as Bruna and Athela flew alongside the sky-ship, and needed to impart upon the Welkalite representatives the dire seriousness of the situation. Plus, despite the fact that Tybalt and Tristram were more than capable decision makers, he felt like it was his duty to be there.

Now his mind was consumed with niggling thoughts – what if the people thought he was weak, tolerating negotiation instead of bringing down heavenly justice upon the New Empire? What if the Yentarians were actually allied with the Welkalites and planned to assassinate him?

Tybalt had sensed his student's mind at unrest due to the fact that Marik was pacing down the length of the passenger compartment, his armoured boots clanging loudly on the corrugated metal.

"Could you please sit down? Making all that racket isn't going to help you think," Tybalt scowled, Jenna raising her eyebrows at the admonishing tone he used with the king, like one of the most influential men in the world was still a petulant child. Marik chuckled – the Hierarch had inspired a huge amount of respect from his younger self, and though he hated to admit it, far more than his late father, King Garius II.

He hoped that neither of his boys thought the same way about him – he used to despise the strict and cold man, especially since his and his brother's mother had died at their birth. Marik had never felt the nurturing hand of a loving parent, and tried to do so with his children now, which was hard without Emili.

The king had decided not to inform his sons of his arrival – the diplomacy would take place out of the way of the students, in fact Pasko had said they already had rooms in place, as after its usage as an academy the Scholaria Magnus was to become a place of international negotiation. If they saw him, it would be a pleasant surprise, but it wasn't necessary for them to know.

.*.*.*.

"Oh, and who's this?" Orzhova asked in mock confusion. Caiellis ignored her and carried on with the tradition of the combat, saying: "Mysos Grandé, this is Orzhova, Angel of the Black Sun."

"You're not a talkative one, are you?" Orzhova mocked when Iridis didn't respond to her. She opened her huge black wings to their fullest extent, and said: "No matter. You are just a lesser angel anyway. Caiellis, couldn't you have Summoned me to fight something more interesting?"

"Do not underestimate Iridis. You may be more powerful and First Sisterhood, but Mysos has far more experience with her than I have with you," Caiellis warned direly, and his angel pouted at him. "He can sustain her for far longer, so let's get going," he ordered.

"Excellent. Since you are lacking slightly in Black mana, I shall use more of that to compensate and keep the balance. This will reduce our overall power, but it will sill be more than enough to crush our enemies," she grinned diving forwards and arcing her scythe at Iridis, who blocked it with her sword, straining as the shadows surrounding the other angel expanded, tendrils of shadow shooting towards her and Mysos. The boy and his Summoning, her eyes alight with hatred, whispered the words of a dispelling ritual, blinding light glowing from their swords and cutting through the miasma.

Caiellis conjured up bolts of mana that he flung at the older Lucaelian, bombarding Mysos's defensive enchantments as he inched towards Cai. The prince smiled and harnessed the energy of darkness, plunging the Sword of Glass into the ground as grabbing arms of shadow began grasping at Mysos. With his left hand he released yet more of the beams of White mana, battering the teen's defences and slowly stopping him as he fired a singular ray that shone with purple light.

Orzhova opened her wings wide and pushed Iridis away from her, spinning the scythe in a shimmering circle of light and darkness that pulsed outwards, sending the seraph reeling. Iridis felt intense pain and gritted her teeth, pulling her wings and sword protectively in front of her as the circle compressed back into a dense sphere. She swung her weapon into it, and as the scythe hit it detonated, Orzhova laughing as the life drained from the opposing angel flowed into her, a cascade of glittering golden particles gently falling onto the dark angel.

Freya could see the destructive combat below her as Gaean swung around, roots and vines called by her chasing the elusive djinn and his Summoner. Jayrahl dodged grasping vines and the huge wooden fist of the nature avatar, launching a flickering tongue of flame at Gaean, as his efreet blasted at it with crackling lightning. Freya's Summoning rumbled in pain as some timbers caught fire, and the Erian swiftly sent out healing pulses of enhanced natural regeneration that nullified the painful flames.

The avatar and efreet continued their dance for a few swings, the djinn and his Summoner avoiding the ponderous swings of Gaean – Freya's Summoning was almost unparalleled in taking out stationary targets, although it suffered greatly against enemies with high mobility. Jayrahl shot upwards and dropped shining spheres of Red and Blue mana onto the moss-cavity the girl was stood on. Gaean raised one of his arms defensively, and the magic detonated in a deafening boom of unstable energy that ripped the elemental's limb apart.

The second that happened, the djinn plunged in for the kill as Gaean staggered back, the muscular creature leaving a trail of fading storm clouds behind it. He dove between the lumbering reactionary strikes of the elemental and headed straight towards Freya as his Summoner focussed his fire-magic on its legs, causing it to sway violently and toss Freya off her feet.

Panic flooded her mind as the efreet hurtled towards her, and she quickly conjured up a scattering of leaves that instantly ignited as soon as they came close to the djinn – Freya had hoped to use that as a distraction, but her breath caught in her throat as the enemy Summoning reached towards her with a coil of lightning that cracked thunderously as it shot towards her.

The Erian breathed deeply, thinking back to the warrior techniques of her tribe before it was slaughtered by the predators of the Deep Forest – it was a gamble, as the djinn would probably be unaffected by her attack, but it was the best thing she had. Freya didn't want to let down the other members of her team, and if she was teleported out when the teachers knew she would die otherwise, Jayrahl would be free to wreak aerial havoc upon her friends. Determination flooded her mind, making the Green mana she was gathering grow in strength as a steely resolve gripped her. She would not fail her team.

Time slowed to a crawl as a heightened flow of adrenaline coursed through her at the proximity to danger – Freya wouldn't actually be killed or hurt, the whole purpose of the teleportation shields was to take them out of danger, but her mind still responded in same way. She felt Green mana augment her physical strength and waited until the lack second to dodge the efreet's blow, jumping into the air by using the strength of natural energy she had accumulated. Freya kicked downwards into the djinn when its whip lashed out into the space she had been a second ago, crushing its corporeal form into mush and cracking Gaean's wood beneath her, ignoring the jolts of electricity that poured through her as she destroyed it.

Jayrahl jolted back when his Summoning unexpectedly crashed back into him, and Freya's own Sancturia avatar used the brief pause in the weaving evading patterns to slam his massive hand downwards and into the Xechunan, the boy being forcefully removed and ported back to the academy before Gaean's fist splattered him into a pulp of mashed organs and bone.

Freya soothed and released pulses of rejuvenating Green mana to augment the healing process of her elemental – Gaean was severely wounded, her stunt with the efreet doing little to help things, and the Erian wanted to use a few seconds of respite to help it recover before aiding her team-mates. It grumbled at her in its strange language and she smirked – Gaean had told her that he wasn't a small sapling and could take care of his own wounds. Even terrifying incarnations of nature could be stubborn and boisterous.

"I haven't forgiven you for the humiliation you caused me, Kally-boy!" Arceus sniggered loudly as he ran at Kaled, the hissing lightning spirit taking the form of a grinning devil-like creature of undevil-like proportions. Regata snarled at the creature, cautioning Kaled.

"Be wary! That thing is a Malignus. No defensive measures that we could take would help against that, it just pierces right through them!" the fire-cat explained, the smaller Summoning's jaws dripping with embers and its anger rising. His last Summoner, a resistance fighter named Garteh who fought with Jarred Redhand in the freeing of the Welkalites, had been brutally murdered by the same Malignus that they fought now, which had then been controlled by one of the last tyrant's bodyguards.

The thing clacked its jaws together in malevolent recognition, electricity spitting into the air around it, and Arceus used that to send a bolt of the stuff at Kaled. The taller boy automatically raised a shield of flame to protect himself, but the coruscating energy completely bypassed it and slammed into Kaled, who involuntarily shrieked in pain as the electricity coursed through his nervous systems, causing him to spasm in pain.

Regata roared and leapt at the Welkalite noble, who smiled disdainfully and brought his Malignus in to intercept the blow. The fire-cat's jaws tore great chunks of substance from the creature, which responded by smashing the elemental away. Kaled watched the exchange intently – Arceus's Summoning hadn't intended to be the recipient of that blow, but the Welkalite had still forced it to do just that. There was no bond between the two earned from hardship, no teamwork between the Summoner and Summoning – Arceus utterly controlled the Malignus.

Mysos waded through the abyssal murk Caiellis had created, swiftly blocking the barrage of offensive White mana the prince sent at him and staggering back in torment when the violet ray hit him square in the chest. It felt like his vital energies were being siphoned away – it shocked Mysos that Prince Caiellis, one of the most innocent and pure people he had ever met could use such evil magic, although he supposed that was mostly due to the Angel of the Black Sun. He let pure determination pulse through his mind and broke free of the draining force, charging at the prince who neatly sidestepped his cleaving blow, the Sword of Glass still pulsating with globules of shadow and stuck in the ground.

Iridis rushed at Orzhova, feeling extremely weary due to the debilitating magics of the dark angel, but still determined not to lose against Akroma's, the creator of Iridis and her Wrathful sisters, hated sibling. Orzhova tutted disapprovingly at her and effortlessly blocked the blow, shaking her head when Iridis was knocked away and immediately came back at the First Sisterhood angel. The Seraph of the Sword was nothing if not persistent, in that, she echoed the creator of her lineage.

"Please do something more interesting instead of swinging that pointless sword around," she sighed, releasing an immensely potent flash of White mana and forcing Iridis to back away from her. "I swear, all you daughters of Akroma are so incredibly flat."

Iridis snarled and launched a spear of radiance at Orzhova, who easily batted it away with a wave of Black mana.

"Caiellis! I'm bored, and we don't have much time left. Lets end this," she announced, grinning down at her Summoner who was still embroiled in combat with the larger boy. Orzhova twirled her scythe above her head, conjuring up the Black Sun that had birthed her into reality this day, infusing it with tremendous amounts of both light and dark energy. A choir could be heard in the background, rising in volume ever second Orzhova poured more power into the midnight orb. Sensing the danger, Iridis dove towards her, a rare battle hymnal on her lips, and Orzhova swung her scythe into the angel, slamming her downwards and into her Summoner, who she had specifically aimed at to free up Caiellis from his battle.

"Provide the light," she commanded, and Cai raised his left palm to the sky, a pillar of luminescence rising up out of it and into the dark star. Orzhova shut her eyes, pushing the White mana in her to the back of her mind and focusing solely on the void of Black, letting go of her weapon and weaving smoking symbols into the air – the ritual of the Culling Sun.

She laughed as Iridis shot towards her furiously and Mysos did the same to her young Summoner.

"Too late," she jeered triumphantly as the Black Sun started to shine, the choir becoming a haunting scream that pierced through her ears. Iridis's expression turned from one of fury and defiance into one of agony and defeat when the light of the deathly sunshine illuminated her in darklight, the annihilating rays draining the life from the angel. The second Mysos was touched by the light he was dragged back to the academy, Unsummoning the Seraph of the Sword.

"That was more fun that I expected. See you soon," Orzhova said, returning back inside of Caiellis's body. The exhilarating feeling abruptly ended and the youngest student of the Scholaria fell to his knees wearily, the god-like sensation of pure power fading back into his mind. He was drained after the Summoning, but in his opinion it had gone well – they had bested a Second Sisterhood angel, which despite Orzhova's boasting and sneers was a mighty foe indeed.

Caiellis knew it would take a few minutes for his mana to recuperate enough so that he could start using it again, but also remembered Tybalt telling him that the feeling got better and the time decreased every time he Summoned. It was an amazing sensation, he could well believe that Xarius and many other mages had become addicted to the feeling of power. He wiped his brow – the heat of the Welkalites fighting was setting the artificial forest alight, and now his own personal battle was over Cai was beginning to sweat. When his mana returned he would be able to help Kaled, but right now he would get in the way.

Arceus blasted Kaled away with a wall of electricity which collided with the boy's own flaming attack, sending Regata and his Summoner back for a few seconds. The instant he felt the aching sensation in his mind dull he looked left, where the two duelling angels and Mysos had gone, leaving a fragile and vulnerable boy on his own – a perfect target. The child was the greatest threat out of Team 3, and even though Jayrahl and Mysos had been defeated Arceus and Leleth could still carry Team 1 to victory if they could eliminate the remaining opposing members.

Annia shot out jets of water at the twisting plants, occasionally catching a glance of a wild-looking Erian girl through the mass of vines, Quioni adding her own fire-power to the bombardment from the air – huge plants erupted from the ground and absorbed the attack, and the Yentarian grinned and called to her Summoning.

"Now!" she shouted, and Quioni rapidly began to decrease her body temperature, freezing the contrails of water that Leleth's botanical Summoning was greedily drinking up. Annia dodged a thrashing vine that obliterated the ground that she had been stood on, and raised her palm, a wave of kinetic force discharging from her hand. It crashed into the frozen Summoning, shattering it apart in an explosion of ice and revealing the startled Leleth.

Annia leapt at her, Quioni returning to normal heat and diving down at the enemy Erian. Leleth raised her arms frantically and a storm of arrow-like leaves descended on the elemental, tearing her apart in a flurry of Green mana – the arrows that impaled Quioni would absorb the elemental should she try to morph into liquid. Instead, she retreated back into Annia, as the Yentarian conjured a staff of numbing Blue mana and swung it at Leleth.

The other girl shrieked as she was hit, baiting out another blow from Annia as she cried in pain. Annia swept the staff again for a second strike, when Leleth cackled victoriously and pulled her closer, vines growing out of her own body and wrapping around the Team 3 leader. She gasped as they crushed the air out of her – Annia knew she couldn't turn into water, but the vines would eliminate her soon enough if she didn't do anything. Her mind worked at overdrive to think of a solution as the vines tightened; any spell she could cast wouldn't be effective or would take too long to conjure.

Feeling her time running out, the Yentarian quickly morphed into water and was absorbed by the vines, almost beginning to drink up the nutrients before she was teleported out. Leleth cried exultantly at her victory, just as a titanic wooden foot crashed down, annihilating the area and defeating her too. Freya screamed out Annia's named, knowing that her friend would already be out but feeling ashamed of herself – had she arrived a moment earlier, she might have been able to save the other girl.

Arceus grinned sadistically at his new plan, figuratively throwing his Malignus into combat with Kaled and Regata, spinning around and running towards the small, huddling shape of Caiellis. Realising the boy's malevolent intention, Kaled yelled in rage and clapped his hands together, igniting the air around him and sending a massive fireball at the Malignus. Regata shot into the path of the flame, letting them wrap about him and roaring in fury as they augmented his already potent speed – the flames surrounding him started to become white as he reached a ridiculous intensity; this was Kaled's finishing move. He cracked the sound barrier in his haste, bursting forwards like a fiery missile, ripping into the screeching Malignus and tearing it apart in an eruption of super-heated flame, returning to Kaled's side as an explosion of white fire pulsed out over the ground.

Arceus grimaced as his Summoning was bested, but no matter – it was just a tool for him to use and dispose of at will, and Kaled would be too late to stop him from eliminating Caiellis. He was confident that he could defeat the street-rat after dealing with the Lucaelian heir anyway.

The boy's head snapped up as he heard the crackle of electricity, and Arceus smirked maliciously as claws of lightning appeared over his hands. Cai tried to move away, but couldn't go far – he was still exhausted from his own combat, and weakly raised his relic blade of inactive crystal in a pathetic defence as the Welkalite threateningly stalked closer.

"I never did get to pay your brother back for the humiliation he caused me. I'll have to take it out on you instead," Arceus smiled viciously. Caiellis could feel his mana slowly returning, and mentally urged it to come back faster. _Maybe if I get him to gloat longer, _he thought, and prepared himself for a counterattack when his mana regenerated.

"No! Please," he pleaded pathetically, inching away from the older boy who came even closer. _Shit! It's not working!_ Panic shuddered through his veins – he knew he wouldn't get hurt, but as a Lucaelian prince he should carry his team to victory – it was expected of him, but as Arceus raised his arms Cai realised that even with Orzhova, he was still a failure.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Arceus murmured, swiping at Caiellis with his thunder-claws. A form blurred and shunted in front of the blow, Kaled yelling in rage as the talons tore into him instead of Caiellis, who's mouth was gaping open in shock. The older boy cried out in agony and was teleported back to the academy, but not before landing next to Cai and weakly smiling at him.

Caiellis's mana rushed through his body, the Sword of Glass lighting up and reflecting his incandescent rage. The prince whipped it around and sliced it through Arceus's block, easily tearing through the Red mana and forcing Arceus to be ported out before he was hacked apart. Tears of anger blurred the edges of his vision – Cai shouldn't need anyone else to look out for him, he was supposed to be one of the strongest mages in the world. It never occurred to the young prince that the reason he wasn't as powerful as he thought he should be was because of his age.

He slowly paced towards the towering elemental of Freya's in the distance – it was a sorry sight, with an arm missing and numerous scorch marks, and stumbled slightly as it noticed the prince and began plodding in his direction. It reached into a mossy area where its face should have been and delicately plucked a figure from there, placing Freya in front of Caiellis and slowly dissipating into peaceful Green mana, muttering quietly to himself. The two remaining team-mates stared awkwardly at each other for a few seconds, Freya slightly taller than the Lucaelian, before Caiellis pulled out his data-sheet and turned away.

"I'll check how many teams are left, but that was definitely the strongest one," he stated, tapping the sheet in nodding in satisfaction when there was only a single other one left. He conveyed the information to Freya, who accepted it silently. Cai suggested: "We should rest for a bit before trying to find them. It's getting dark."

"Caiellis?" Freya asked suddenly, as light began to bleed off the younger boy – the light signalling a teleportation. He looked in confusion at his hands, glowing with turquoise glimmer that steadily brightened.

"What's going on?" he demanded, "I'm still fine! I haven't been defeated yet!"

It felt like he was begging to some uncaring deity, and swung his sword in the air in frustration. "Why is this happening?"

Then, the concerned face of Freya was gone, as was the ground beneath his feet, and a spinning sensation left Cai feeling nauseous as he was roughly deposited on a soft mat. Doctor Argyle stood with his side to the boy, fingers on a wall-terminal that glowed with a soft blue light. The prince realised that the small room surrounding him wasn't the recovery room the students were supposed to have been transferred by the teleportation into.

He rounded on the Yentarian, releasing his anger, shouting: "What is the meaning of this?!"

Argyle stared blankly back at the irritated youth, pressing a button on the wall next to him and standing back as a gleaming metal door swished open. Caiellis's glared instantly switched to the figure stood in the doorway, but he immediately converted it into one of cautious respect when he recognised just who it was that had authorised the teleportation.

"Good evening, son," Marik uttered, and Alex gave his little brother a wave from behind their father.

* * *

><p>Unbound creatures and Summonings in this chapter:<p>

Annia Bylae - Mulldrifter

Meri Hayato - Spellheart Chimera

Freya Oluseyi - Gaea's Revenge

Mysos Grande - Seraph of the Sword

Kierra Esse - Firemane Avenger

Ollis Pax - Linvala, Keeper of Silence

Jayrahl Phransis - Serendib Efreet

Arceus Etin - Malignus

Leleth Barkbite - Avenger of Zendikar


	10. Abduction

Marik had spontaneously decided that his sons, being princes, deserved to know about the state of their kingdom and have a hand in its fate, so had requested their presence from one of the school officials the second he greeted him.

"With respect, my lord," one of them, a nervous-looking Yentarian that quivered beneath the king's stony gaze, readjusting his glasses, "Prince Alexander isn't in lessons, as it is the evening. However, Prince Caiellis is currently in the middle of a team battle. We can teleport him out at any time, but-"

"Then do so," Marik interrupted sternly, "And call Alexander."

"My lord, I don't think your son will take too kindly to being pulled out right now," the man basically pleaded – when he had left the observation gallery, the youngest student of the school was in the midst of his Summoning, and Mr Fram certainly didn't want to be the one to intervene. Truth be told, the dark angel terrified him, as did the godlike expression on the boy's face.

"I will be the judge of that," the king stated, using his authoritarian voice, and strode past the man. "I assume you have some way of allowing me to view him. Take me to it."

"Of course lord, right away lord," Fram babbled, a little too relieved at not having to be the source of the prince's ire. He motioned to the silent and impassive Doctor Argyle stood next to him, "My lord, Doctor Argyle will be able to take you to the observation gallery. I shall go and fetch your eldest."

The man then scampered away, Guardian Tristram trying to stifle a laugh at the effect Marik was having on the teacher – he himself was ten years younger than the king, but when they had first met he hadn't reacted in such a way. Tristram attributed that to the fact that he had been a rebellious teen at the time, but had been beaten by his father after showing disrespect to the current monarch's two sons. He remembered the stern man, hating him at the time and still feeling antipathy towards him when the war had started. The Guardian now regretted that, as his parents had both died in the civil war.

"Follow me," the expressionless doctor uttered, beginning to walk away from the Lucaelian party. When they made to follow him, he turned around, saying: "Only King Marik is permitted access. The rest of you should make your way to the hall. The Welkalite leaders have only just arrived."

The guards bristled at the disrespect towards their ruler and made to refuse, but were dissuaded by the wave of a placating hand from Marik. They saluted curtly and left, Jenna utilising one of the data sheets and conversing with Hierarch Tybalt to direct them towards the hall. The doctor and king paced wordlessly towards the observation deck, a large room with many screens showing different areas of the island, and another small space with a metal door adjacent to it.

Marik scanned the footage, and smiled when he saw his son about to cut apart an older boy (he reminded himself that Caiellis was the youngest in the Scholaria Magnus), a mechanical construct in the room clicking a button and rescue the adolescent from his impending doom, depositing him back in the academy but in a different room.

"There is no need for me to initiate an emergency teleport, so I can get Caiellis to be ported in that room over there," Argyle explained, as the Lucerna met up with an Erian girl after her own towering Summoning dissipated into raw Green mana. Marik heard the door opening behind him and turned around, meeting the face of his eldest.

"Evening dad," he said, his voice happy but also coloured with an undertone of seriousness – anything that brought the ruler of Lucael out here would be something important. Alex had been under no illusions, his father definitely wouldn't take the time to come here just to see his children, and when Mr Fram had anxiously briefed him on the precarious situation he knew he was correct. Alexander was glad to see his father, but was apprehensive about the coming negotiations.

"I assume you are aware of the situation?" Marik questioned, and when Alex nodded he belatedly embraced his eldest, the teenager awkwardly returning the hug. The doctor ignored the Lucernan prince and moved through the doorway into the single-teleporter chamber, instantly shutting the door when Marik was about to follow. The king shared an amused glance with his son, who then turned to the viewing screens.

"The squirt isn't going to be happy about this," Alex muttered as he watched Caiellis look at his glowing hands in confusion, incredulous anger marring his once triumphant pale features.

"His royal duties are more important than his own feelings," Marik shot back, as he heard an energised detonation of sound that must have heralded his son's re-materialisation. They could hear an angry voice demanding to be informed of what was going on, and Marik walked towards the steel door as it swished open.

"Good evening, son," he uttered at the furious face of his youngest, who instantaneously calmed in the presence of his father – he understood that this was why he had been called out, it must have been extremely significant to requisite the king of Lucael's presence here. Alex waved at the younger boy, who gave him a smile and turned soberly back to his father.

"Dad, what is going on?" he inquired earnestly, and Marik was pleasantly surprised. He expected his youngest son to be furious with him for teleporting him out of the battleground, but Cai had pushed his emotions to the back of his mind and focussed intently on the current situation.

"Caiellis, I requested you and your brother's presence because I am about to enter negotiations with the Welkalite emissaries and leaders," he explained, his voice clipped and tone clinical. Caiellis nodded quickly and Marik continued, "Bandits and raiders from Welkas have been attacking supply caravans on the borders, but instead of declaring outright war the best course of action is to engage in diplomacy. Come. We go to the main hall."

"You ok, little bro?" Alex asked, concern etching across his face when he noticed Caiellis had zoned out, eyes losing their intent gleam and becoming unfocussed. Marik, who had already set off, turned around to see his eldest gently tilting Cai's head upwards and repeat his question.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit tired," he played down the weariness he felt, but both Marik and Alexander could clearly see it. A pang of sympathy went out from the king to his youngest – the small boy was battered and quite clearly exhausted. Maybe dragging him straight out of a battle and into complex and tenuous political situations wasn't the best plan; Marik pushed the thoughts out of his mind, both his boys needed to know how to rule a kingdom.

"If you say so, squirt. Just tell us if you don't feel well," Alex patted his brother on the back and led him forwards to their waiting father. Marik was glad they had developed such a strong brotherly bond – he had never felt particularly close to Johnias, although his twin had often acted like they were best friends. Here he could see that Alex's love was reciprocated, which brought a sense of warmth to his heart, even though he knew the real reason for their intimacy was the years of hardship they had suffered through because of their traitorous uncle.

The small family made its way towards the hall, through a route of out-of-bounds zones that had been set up to prevent students from seeing the king of Lucael, and Marik thought about starting a conversation, but didn't want to break the silence so continued walking instead. He contemplated the coming meeting – the king certainly didn't want to throw his people into another war, so would have to be careful about what he was going to say. When they reached the mahogany double doors that signalled access to the main hall, Caiellis spoke softly.

"Dad, I have a bad feeling about this," he said worriedly, and Marik turned around to face him.

"Care to elaborate?" he snapped, not realising how tense he was becoming about the imminent conference.

"I don't know," the boy replied unhelpfully, and Marik sighed. "I just feel like it is a mistake to go in there. I have a bad feeling about this, and a headache." he repeated.

"And should I let your bad feelings get in the way of Lucael's safety?"

"Dad," Alex interjected, "Maybe you should-"

"Do what, exactly? Consign my kingdom to another war just because a child couldn't control his sad emotions or keep them to himself? Caiellis, if you don't want to go in, be my guest. But it is my duty as a king to try and prevent war," he stated calmly, reigning in his caustic tone from earlier. He couldn't let "bad feelings" get in the way of his people's safety. "So are you coming, or not?"

His youngest nodded dutifully, all the obedient son in that moment, although his eyes were still clouded over with anxiousness. Marik patted him reassuringly on the shoulder and composed himself, removing the compassionate expression and replacing it with one of steely determination. He was one of the most influential human beings on the planet, and forced himself to look like it, adjusting his crown and cape and dramatically pushed the doors open.

The room was set out with a large table in the centre of it, a holographic representation of Magnus-Primae located in the middle. At one side, white banners bearing the Lucernan crest indicated where the king and princes should sit, next to the Hierarch and Guardian of Capitalia Lux. Jenna was stood off to the side awkwardly, intently watching the humans sat at the other side of the hall.

The opposite end was framed by crimson flags showing the symbol of a mailed fist, bloody with the viscera of the slain, held triumphantly in the air. A quartet of Welkalite representatives lounged in comfortable seats, with masked guards standing to attention behind them. Marik scanned the exotically adorned four, who smirked arrogantly back, surprised and more than a little annoyed that Jarred Redhand had not deigned to appear to the gathering, and had instead sent obviously important members of whatever ruling body the Empire of Passion obeyed after the dissolution of the Old Empire.

Caiellis's eyes brushed over them, sensing that they were the causes of his discomfort, and as he glanced at a man swathed by his clothes – he was covered in gaudy fabrics that sent aching pains through his head the man grinned sadistically at him, exposing filed teeth that glinted in the sapphire light of the conjured image. Alexander glared at the man and the Welkalite turned away from his little brother, Alex and Cai then taking their seats either side of their father's.

A man clad in grey robes with knowing eyes stood up from a seat at the bisector between the two factions and cleared his throat. Both boys recognised the headteacher Hadan Colae, and the man winked understandingly at Caiellis, as if sensing his agitation.

"As both parties have arrived, the discussion will now begin. You should probably start by introducing yourselves," the unaligned headmaster suggested, and Marik took that as a cue to stand back up.

"I am Marik Ensis Lucerna, king of Lucael, and quite frankly, I couldn't care less about who you are or what your station is. All I need to know is that you are lackeys of Redhand," the eldest Lucerna raised his voice to be like a royal pronouncement, booming across the room and capturing the undivided attention of its occupants. He was determined to take control of this discussion from the outset and force the opposition to acquiesce to his demands. "The Welkas Empire stands accused of repeatedly assaulting traders, civilians and border patrols of Lucael. What is your excuse for this? I need a good one to prevent from ordering the utter annihilation of your precious empire."

Marik's dramatic and threatening words had their intended effect, and the king concealed a smile as the haughty Welkalites physical rocked back as if they had been slapped, smugness dissolving in the face of the king's wrath. One of them, a muscled brute clothed in interlocking brass metal plates that left much of his tanned and scarred skin bare and masked by a gladiator's helm, got to his feet, a huge battle-axe slung over his back.

"I am Arendus Draal, Master of Violence," he announced belligerently, wilfully ignoring the Lucaelian's earlier proclamation, his voice deep, harsh and brutal. "I thought we had established that the attacks were done by bandits. If you cannot defend against petty raiders, that is none of the empire's concern."

Marik raised an amused eyebrow at the barbarian's audacity, thinking that politics were no place for gladiators – he had heard of the brutish bloodsport arenas the Order of Violence prided themselves on. What a waste of time. Glory should be earned in battle and through one's own achievements, not by slaying captive creatures in an orgy of pointless bloodshed. However, the Welkalites had always had a penchant for over-indulgence.

"Well then, Arendus, it will no come as no surprise to you that we have eliminated these "bandits" of yours. They were garbed in the regalia of Welkas troops, although they could easily be renegade. Nevertheless, so long as your civilisation poses a direct threat to mine it will be destroyed. Simple as that," Marik stated plainly, "So therefore, I think you should conclude that these raiders _are _your problems also, if you cannot control your troops then maybe a change of leadership needs to occur."

Caiellis got up from his seat. Immense pain pounded in his head, burning torment that increased in intensity every second of being in the room. He could sense the eyes of everyone boring into him as he silently made his way towards the door on the left, which led to an outside balcony. Cai could feel his cheeks lighting up ashamedly under the joined gazes of both parties – his father must have been disappointed, but the boy couldn't bear being in room anymore. He wouldn't have been able to contribute to the debate anyway, he couldn't think clearly past the burning sensation.

Alexander made to get up and follow him, concern for his baby brother evident in his bright blue eyes, but Tristram placed a restraining hand on his shoulder, keeping the seventeen year old still. Marik would already be annoyed enough at the departure of one of his sons. Unbeknownst to the Lucaelians, a couple of shadows detached themselves from the walls and slipped out of the room behind the youngest prince.

"Aww, could the child not stand the arguing? Did we upset him? How adorable" the Welkalite attired in garish clothing who had locked eyes with the boy sneered, receiving a fiery glare from the king, older son, Hierarch and Guardian. He had definitely hit a nerve there. He also rose, "I am Tradax Yulica, Master of Rapture and what you are saying,_ my liege_," he spat mockingly, "smacks of intimidation and self-aggrandizement. I thought those qualities were frowned upon in the Kingdom of Light."

"The king is not threatening you. He is merely stating facts," Tybalt replied coolly, intervening before Marik, already irritated by Caiellis, released his anger.

"We have tolerated your impertinence for many years now, and if you refuse to stop then we will have no choice but to force you to."

.*.*.*.

Caiellis raised his face to the pouring rain, feeling the refreshingly cold water wash away some of the pain. The headache receded to tolerable levels, and he sighed wearily. He hadn't wanted to embarrass his father, he should have taken the man's offer earlier and stayed out of the room. However, the notion that they were all in terrible danger refused to be erased from his mind, and no matter how hard Cai tried he couldn't shake the premonition of onrushing peril.

The boy analysed the precarious situation between Lucael and Welkas and what that would mean for each nation. The Kingdom of Light had only just recovered from their own internal civil war, although now they were arguably even stronger than before – even so, Johnias was still loose in the darkness with his closest treacherous compatriots, and the distraction of another conflict may be just what he needed to further his own plans.

He wanted to talk with Orzhova; maybe she could tell him about the foreboding he felt. Come to think of it, there had been something else niggling at the back of his mind since he had Summoned her. Cai let himself sink into his Mind Realm, his body remaining standing out in the freezing rain. He found himself in the cathedral he had now come to associate with the Angel of the Black Sun, said angel smiling pleasantly at him when he fully entered.

"Hello again, Caiellis. Do you need to talk about something?" she asked, the melancholy veil over her eyes quickly replaced with one of happiness. Cai felt a moment of empathy for the angel – according to Akroma, Orzhova had been shunned by the Sisterhood after her actions in Xarius's reign; it must be an incredibly lonely and isolated existence for the dark angel. She always seemed thrilled to see him, to have someone to talk to after the years of being trapped in the Mind Realm when he couldn't pass her trial.

"Yeah, I want to ask you about two things. First, earlier today you said that my Black mana was inadequate. I know that I'm more comfortable with White mana, having utilised it my entire life, but I followed your advice to the letter," he explained, slight exasperation colouring his soft voice, "I never focussed on those feelings before. I forced myself to remember every excruciating detail of that horrible night, and yet my Black mana is not good enough?"

"Caiellis, calm down," she gently admonished, "I know it must have been painful for you, I could feel it myself – just like what I felt on the night your mother died."

"However, all your pain, all your hatred, who is it directed at?" Orzhova asked.

"Johnias," Cai muttered darkly, disgust blooming in his mind at the thought of his uncle, the one that had ripped his young life apart and plunged the four year old him into a desperate war between darkness and light.

"Exactly. Johnias the Arch-Heretic," she continued, "Perpetrator of one of the largest cataclysms in Lucaelian history. You have not seen him since before the war, have you?"

"No," Caiellis murmured, starting to see what his angel was getting at but willing to let her finish her explanations before jumping to conclusions.

"Precisely. Your last memory of Johnias, the focal point of your hatred in the generation of Black mana, is not of a murderous betrayer, nor of a merciless butcher. The last time you saw him, he was just an affectionate uncle doting on his favourite nephew."

The boy let Orzhova's words sink in, playing them around in his mind and considering the implications of it – he remember his uncle's face, identical to his father's but filled with warmth that he now knew to be false instead of parental pride hidden under a veneer of duty to the kingdom. That had been a month before he betrayed, and the young Caiellis couldn't believe that the loving man had gone against his father. That had been prior to Emili's murder, and all thoughts of fondness towards Johnias had been converted to pure and unfettered hatred in Cai's mind, emotions that remained to this day but had increased in potency every day of the civil war. Nonetheless, it seemed like Caiellis's subconscious still regarded his uncle based on his last meeting with the man.

The angel's onyx eyes narrowed and her porcelain face became suspicious before Cai had a chance to inquire about his present emotions.

"Get out. Quick!" Orzhova commanded, and the boy felt himself jolt roughly out of the Mind Realm, blearily opening his eyes to the pouring rain. He shook his heard, cursing inwardly when he detected the presence of two intruders to the balcony. He quietly activated the Lens of Guilt, ink-like darkness painting the world in black, clearly revealing the intent of the ambushers behind as blotches of pulsating scarlet. Caiellis waited until they were within striking distance, and then sprung into spontaneous action.

The prince spun around, drawing the Sword of Glass and activating it in an actinic flash, the rain sizzling when it touched the crystal blade. The first assailant, smaller than the second and lithe, gasped in shock when the weapon pierced through her shadowy disguise. Claret liquid spilled from her stomach, the wound quickly cauterising because of the intense magical heat of Cai's blade. She pulled the sword deeper, ignoring her flesh burning as her hands touched the holy crystal, and Caiellis could see her grinning insanely through the immense agony.

A moment of indecision cost the prince dearly, as he wrestled for control of the sword for a second and was distracted by the spray of vital fluids. Caiellis hated violence and death, although it was a necessity and liked to think that he wouldn't hesitate to kill if the offender threatened him or his loved ones, but was more than a little disturbed by the woman's moans of pleasure as the blade stuck further into her. He twisted it to try and break free when the second assailant loomed behind him, a muscled figure that swung down at him.

Caiellis managed to yank the Sword of Glass out of the now-dead female assassin, who slumped to the floor with a huge cavity where her stomach once was, twirling around just as a huge hand encircled his lower forearm. The prince yelped in distress as cold metal was roughly pressed onto the thin wrist, the sinister black steel shimmering with malignant intent in the Lens of Guilt. He gasped as the freezing thing cut him off from his supply of magical energy, the sudden hollowing sensation making the boy want to vomit. Cai felt incredibly weak and tried to pull away from the man, who grunted and yanked him back, pulling the prince's artefact weapon away from him and slinging it into the same holster of a huge axe.

The two wrestled for a split second before the prince was overpowered, fragile without his mana backing him up. Cai tried to conjure up some to fight off his attacker, but it was like looking into an empty void. Panic pulsed through his mind – was he going to die here?

"Alex..." he choked as the man wrapped a bulging arm around his throat, cutting off the flow of air and starving the cry for help. He feebly pulled at the constricting limb, but it barely moved. Normally Caiellis wasn't that bothered about his lack of physical strength, figuring that he would gain it as he went further into puberty, but now sorely wished he had devoted more time to weight-training and Tristram's other sessions. He felt himself being hauled into another room and suddenly understood the direness of his situation – the prince would be used as a bargaining tool. Cai thrashed and desperately kicked back, and the man increased the pressure of his grip, as black spots appeared in the boy's vision. Fatigue and the disconcerting and abrupt lack of mana weakened him severely, but it didn't stop him from trying as he was carried away from the balcony.

.*.*.*.

Tradax shut his eyes for a second and breathed deeply – he seemed to be the leader of the Welkalite party, as only him and Arendus Draal had contributed so far, and the latter seemed to show grudging fealty to the Master of Rapture. The man smiled sadistically at Marik, revealing his sharpened fangs. The king glared back as the Welkalite began to laugh, a sibilant, hissing noise that made the middle Lucerna want to go and punch him.

"What is so funny?" Alexander snarled, and Tradax ceased his manic giggling, locking eyes with the eldest prince.

"Oh, the main event is about to start!" he squealed in ecstatic joy, and the Lucaelians and Yentarians glanced around suspiciously as the shadows began to deepen.

"This is-" Tristram exclaimed as Marik interrupted him coldly, his eyes blazing with fury, "Yes. Demon-magic."

"How perceptive of you, my lord!" Tradax cried, and the king gathered up his White mana and immediately Summoned Akroma, the pretence of trying to find peace with Welkas utterly gone now that he knew they courted with Sancturia demons. The angel growled when she realised why she had been Summoned, drawing her enormous sword and about to charge at Tradax when the man waved his finger.

"Ah-ah. I don't think you should do that," he shook his head mockingly when the Angel of Wrath didn't stop her attack, "Especially not when you see Caiellis."

"**What have you done to him**_?"_ Marik thundered, Akroma sensing the hidden command to stop her attack. Bruna, Athela and Aurelia had also entered the room, the huge angels aloft in the cavernous hall and surrounded by haloes of glittering light. Tradax waggled his finger again and Alex's breath caught in his throat. His little brother had been hurt!

"Arendus, if you would?" the Welkalite grinned maliciously, clearly enjoying the oldest Lucernas reacting to the news of the youngest in plight. The brutish Master of Violence nodded and dissolved into a pool of blood where he was stood.

"A clone?" Jenna blurted out in realisation, as the door to the balcony was pushed open and the true Arendus strode in. Alex cried out when he saw Caiellis struggling weakly against a muscled arm around his neck, hopelessly trying to break free.

"Oh? Where is Meira?" Tradax asked. His counterpart replied with a gruff: "Dead."

"Shame, I liked her."

The brothers' eyes met, Cai's green orbs bloodshot and terrified, and Alex wanted nothing more than to exterminate the Master from existence and save his little brother from harm. But Arendus held a large knife to the side of the boy's throat, and the gladiator would have no problems in killing Caiellis before Alex could rescue him.

As bad as Alex took the situation, it affected Marik worse. Seeing his baby, his little Caiellis, in harm's way froze his mind. He had never before witnessed one of his sons in so much danger – he hadn't been there when Emili was stabbed, but arrived after Cai destroyed the demons. The sight of his precious youngest with the life being choked from him filled him with a tremendous rage that couldn't get past the mental block he felt. Marik had only experienced this once before, when the love of his life had been slain.

"The New Empire of Welkas would like to be able to survive without you Lucaelians interfering – to do this we need an alliance. However, you would never do so, so we knew that the perfect incentive for … shall we way _persuading _the stubborn king would be his sons," Tradax laughed, "Now, our proposal is simple. Alexander and Caiellis come with us to Welkas and act as your Lucaelian representatives, ensuring that you won't break your promises. We will release them when we are ready. You would never willingly agree to that, so now you have an easy choice to make – Your sons come to Welkas, or precious little baby Caiellis dies right in front of you. First, dispel your angels," he ordered, moving to Arendus and tenderly stroking Cai's mop of brown hair.

Akroma and Aurelia were dismissed instantaneously, with Bruna and Athela being released by their owners after a moment of hesitation.

"Get away from him," Alexander growled and made to move over to the Welkalite's side. A restraining hand prevented him, and he turned towards the pleading face of his father.

"If I let you go, who knows what may happen to you? You could both die," his blue eyes were desperate, "I'm sorry, but I can't take that chance. One heir needs to survive."

"You aren't seriously suggesting that, are you?!" Alex shouted indignantly. He was fully prepared to go along with Tradax's proposition, so long as he could get his little brother out of immediate danger. They would figure things out after that, and right now he didn't care about the future. He needed to protect Cai in the present. Alex was horrified that his father could even suggest sacrificing his youngest to keep them both out of danger.

"The longer you wait, the less air he has," Tradax called from across the room. He was right – Caiellis's struggles were becoming weaker as his oxygen-starved limbs refused to respond to his commands, falling limply by his sides as he realised that he needed to conserve energy. Marik's eyes locked with his, and Cai shook his head feebly.

"No...Don't..." he gasped out, and the father could see the shame and sadness, but more than that, the pleading, in his son's eyes. They said: Let me die. Get out with Alex. Don't let him be thrust into danger as well.

"Dad, we will be fine. I will make sure of it," Alex begged, his own blue irises desperate with the need to help his sibling. "Dad, please. Don't let him die."

"I will get you back," Marik resigned, promising his sons and etching that promise into his mind, where it would burn until it could be fulfilled. Alex nodded his head and ran over to Caiellis, still held by Arendus and dying in the man's grip. Tradax grinned victoriously and pressed a metal bracelet into the other prince's hand.

"Put this on before we release him," he commanded, and Alexander did so instantly, grunting when the mama-inhibitor cut off his magic flow. Caiellis was released, slumping to the floor and gasped violently, coughing and inhaling in equal measures.

"And lord Marik, should you attempt to get your sons back, or interfere in any way it is they who will pay the price," Tradax smirked arrogantly and Arendus roughly pushed the boys towards the exit, his gargantuan axe held one-handed. Alex reckoned that he could maybe best the man, but didn't want to risk doing anything with Caiellis in his current state. He held the smaller boy close to him and helped with the walking, turning around to meet his father's determined eyes one last time before they were dragged away by other Welkalite guards.

"What do you really want with us?" he snarled at Tradax, the man walking confidently in front of them.

"Oh, was my lie not very convincing?" he replied petulantly, taking on a childish voice as if trying to better interact with the princes. Alex stroked his brother's forehead when the boy shuddered and let out a small whimper.

"Oh well. There is someone in Welkas that wants to meet you."


	11. City of Pleasure

_Disclaimer: There are a few Final Fantasy XIII-Lightning Returns references here, as the Welkalite city of Usnaan is based on the very similarly named (my choice of name was creative, I know) city of Yusnaan in the game._

Caiells sat with his brother in the back of a large and extravagant airship that had intercepted their passage in the one that the Yentarians had lent each of the two parties. He was scared, but far more pressing was the feeling of shame that refused to leave his mind. Cai felt that it was his fault the brothers were basically kidnapped and forced to go to Welkas, and even though their father, king of one of the most powerful civilisations in history, had promised to save them, it still didn't stop the boy from thinking about how he had doomed them both, how they should have just let him die so Alexander wouldn't be dragged in as well.

"Cai. Stop blaming yourself," Alex said suddenly, moving his hand over and squeezing his brother's shoulder gently, but firm enough to show that his big brother was going to protect him. Caiellis wiped tears of self-loathing that had already appeared in his eyes. _Alex never cries, and neither should I, _he told himself, and looked away from the older boy. He didn't want Alexander to worry, both of them had enough to deal with, "'I'm not."

"Yes you are, little bro. Don't lie to me, my big-brother alarm is ringing," he joked, and Cai favoured him with a sad smile. He would like to think that this wasn't the worst they had gone through, but despite some dangerous encounters in the civil war the boys had never been in so much peril before.

"It's my fault," Caiellis muttered, and Alex chuckled quietly. Both of them blamed themselves for the abduction – Cai thought that he should have been stronger and never been subdued by Arendus, whereas his brother told himself that he should have helped the youngest Lucerna to argue with Dad when the boy sensed incoming danger. He shook his head at the smaller boy, sighing loudly.

"Where are we going?" he asked the Master of Rapture who was sat in a seat in front of them, just behind the pilot. Cai was once again surprised and proud of how calm his older brother always acted in precarious circumstances, hiding away his own worries and concerns so that he could better protect his little brother. He knew that Alex would have bottled up his true feelings inside, pushing them away so they didn't distract him and so he could focus on aiding his families and friends. The older boy was certainly quite selfless.

"We will alight at Usnaan, City of Pleasure and you will be accommodated at the Palace of Desire, what used to be the Imperial Palace before the last tyrant was torn down," Tradax explained, casting a glance back at the teenagers. He was triumphant, but not overtly hostile. "I thought it would be fitting considering your exalted heritage."

"The Empire of Passion, City of Pleasure and Palace of Desire. Sounds quite fun," Alex sniggered at the ridiculous names. The brothers both reacted to conditions like these differently – the younger would become depressed and filled with self-hatred, while Alex tried to use humour and appear perfectly fine so that others wouldn't worry about him.

"Oh, certainly. You will be able to find anything you could ever want there," the man purred, once again exposing his filed teeth.

"Anything apart from freedom, you mean?" Alex shot back, and Tradax laughed loudly. Caiellis stayed silent and looked out of the dark window, seeing the arid and drab landscape of Welkas fade away and become replaced by the signs of dwellings. He craned his neck, perceiving flashes of light and ostentatious colours out of the corner of his eye, wild declarations of individuality into the night, but couldn't actually see Usnaan.

"Oh my, you are a funny one. I wonder which member of your family you get that from – it certainly can't be your insipid father."

"Do not insult my family," Alexander retorted angrily, and Tradax held up a hand in mock surrender. "I would not presume to affront the great Lucernan line, and definitely not with you here – you are very protective of your relatives."

His eyes, moving in their slits like those of a predator whose gaze has just sighted the perfect prey, slid over Caiellis, taking the melancholy prince in. Now that he had calmed down after almost being killed by Arendus Draal, the boy was just remembering that he had actually murdered another person. This was the second time he had killed an actual human being, although in the civil war he had been forced to slaughter many of the Black-aligned Sancturia creatures that had allied with Johnias to survive, and flash-backed to his first human kill.

_Alexander and Caiellis shared the double-bed in the bedroom of the current safe-house, despite both their protestations – at the age of fourteen, Alex of course still loved his little brother, but was finding the time he spent with the younger boy tiring and sometimes unbearable. He felt like he couldn't properly enjoy himself in the cities they visited with the boy constantly tagging along, cramping his style. However, he still shared a room with little Cai, not forgetting the kid's fear of the perpetual darkness that intensified with the coming night – Caiellis had said that it reminded him of the night before their mum had died. His ten year old little brother laid on the other side of the bed in his black pyjamas, staring defiantly at the opposite wall and pretending he was asleep, though the older sibling knew he wasn't – Caiellis made periodic wiping motions with his arm and stifled sniffles, indicating that the junior Lucerna was crying. _

_The brothers had argued vehemently before going to bed – Alexander had wanted to go to a festival in the city they now stayed in, Civitas Sol, with the new friends he had quickly made from the boys and girls similar to his age he had met. However, Hierarch Tybalt (or "Uncle" Tybalt as his little brother called the ancient man) had decreed that he stay back at the house, look after Caiellis and make sure they both completed their written work. Alex had been in a bad mood because of this, blaming his brother before the night had even started, and when the smaller youth continuously pestered him for help with his own work the middle Lucerna had exploded._

_Of course Cai had reacted in the same way, emulating his big brother and shouting back. It had devolved into a bitter argument that drew sustenance from both their negative emotions about their lives in the civil war, and both of them had said things that neither meant. Being the older brother, Alex should have known that his words and accusations would have cut deeper than Cai's, but had been too caught up in the heat of the moment of their shouting match. He hoped that his baby brother didn't truly believe the things he had said about not loving the other boy and how he should never have been born, but judging by Caiellis's present actions he had._

"_Hey, kiddo?" he asked, turning around in the bed to look at the slight form of his little brother, who stopped his movements and quietened his breathing at Alex's sudden decision to want to talk, pretending he was fast asleep. Alexander sighed, annoyed at himself for letting the bickering get out of hand and not acting more mature about it, "Look, I know you're awake, so whether you reply or not doesn't matter." He was greeted with silence, and chuckled quietly, "You don't really think that I hate you, do you?"_

"_Why would anyone not?" the younger boy whimpered back, and Alex mentally punched himself. He should have seen this coming, Caiellis always thought negatively about himself because of his uselessness in Tristram's physical training, so of course his little brother would take Alexander's words to heart and start the self-loathing process. "I'm just dragging you down, the useless little one that always has to be protected. I'm a waste of space."_

_The younger male's repetition of some of Alex's words combined with his own made the older brother wince inside._

"_C'mere," he commanded in his best big brother voice, and Cai questioned, "Why?"_

"_Don't make me force you," Alex responded, and his brother sighed, turning over in the bed to face the larger boy. The youngest prince was actually far beyond his single decade of life in intelligence, but his lack of experience in dealing with emotions and just generally not having the maturity given by age often made Alex want to help him. It wasn't as if he acted his age – the war had forced them both to become adults much faster than normal – but his tiny frame coupled with his innocence were the main factors that made Alexander want to baby him. Caiellis had obviously been crying, despite the fact that he tried to hide them tear tracks were evident on his pale cheeks._

"_Aww, little brother, you know sometimes I don't mean what I say," he smiled, pulling Cai closer in for a bone-crushing but still brotherly hug. The little brother scowled but made no effort to move away, signalling to Alex that he was victorious in removing the negative thoughts from the ten year old's mind._

_After a moment of silence in which Alexander was unwilling to release his little brother but did so anyway; the boy wouldn't like it if he overstayed his welcome, Caiellis spoke up, "Alex, can you feel that?"_

"_Feel what?" he replied, concerned at the younger prince's sudden change of tone from one full of youth to one of adult seriousness and alertness._

"_I can sense a dark presence..." he began, his eyes widening to the opposite side of the room as the shadows coalesced and detatched from the wall, materialising behind Alex. He shouted: "Look out!"_

_The blonde spun around, activating his mana and forming a large shield as a large and serrated blade swung into him. The strength behind the blow was immense, and both Lucernas cried out as Alex was flung across the spacious room, cracking loudly against the hard wall and briefly slumping into unconsciousness._

_Grunting an annoyance at his weapon being repelled by the boy's magic, the man stalked across the room, preparing to finish off the eldest prince, the greatest threat, before easily murdering the smaller boy._

"_No!" a voice yelled, suffused with an otherworldly resonance as the assassin swung his blade towards the downed Alex, who had reawakened and held his arms defensively in front of him. A beam of light shot out from the bed, piercing through the man and immolating his insides in a fiery expansion of holy flame. The agent of Johnias shrieked as he was incinerated, a horrific sound that pierced both boys' ears._

"_Well, that was impressive. Thanks bro," Alex said, impressed at the sheer magical display, but also quite miffed at his own swift defeat. He would have to train harder, although he had been caught by surprise and unable to call upon Aurelia. The teen got to his feet, rolling his shoulders and gasping slightly at the pain in his stomach, when he heard the sound of a small whimper. The big brother alarm in his head rang loudly, and he turned around to see Caiellis shaking and looking at his hands, pure horror on his face. Then he realised it – neither of them had killed any humans before, as the agents sent after them at every previous occasion had been Black Sancturia monsters, but this time it had been a man, albeit corrupted by darkness._

_He got down on the bed and wrapped an arm around his trembling brother, holding up a reassuring hand as the door creaked open and Tristram's face went from the crying Cai to the comforting Alex and the pile of ash on the floor, coming to his conclusions about the event – creatures of the other realm didn't leave corpses, and his youngest student had never been shaken by erasing them. The look in Alexander's face clearly stated that he could handle the situation, and the Guardian nodded, shutting the door and waiting dutifully by the doorway in case they called him in, feeling like he had failed in his duty to protect the king's sons._

"_H-he was human," Caiellis stammered, feeling the weight of his actions pressing down on him._

"_Yeah, and he was going to kill us," Alex responded, wiping the tears away from his brother's face and moving the brown bangs out of his eyes. "You did the right thing, Cai. You stopped us both from getting hurt."_

"_B-but I'm a murderer. I k-killed him," he tilted his head downwards in sadness, and Alex pushed off the bed, kneeling down on the floor and in front of his brother's dejected gaze. "He was evil, Cai. Imagine how many other people he would have killed after us, imagine how sad Dad would be knowing that he would never see his sons again. Imagine how depressed mum would be when we went to meet her in heaven – she would want us to have long and happy lives, ok? You did good. He was no better than the demons, so you should think of him as one."_

_Alex was completely unprepared for Caiellis to jump off the bed and tackle into his brother, pressing his head into the teen's lean chest and wrapping his thin arms around him like a death grip._

"_Oof! You're getting a bit too big for that," he reciprocated the hug, "Angels, you're gonna think I'm your wife or something the amount of times I've hugged you tonight."_

"_Eww, that's gross!" the younger boy exclaimed, extricating himself from his brother's assuaging embrace and pushing him away, a look of exaggerated and child-like (Alex reminded himself again that Cai was only ten) disgust on his face. He pulled his little brother into a headlock and kissed the top of his mop of hair, grinning at his brother's squeals of indignation._

"_Get some sleep, squirt," he said, letting go of him and waiting until Cai was under the covers before saying: "I'm just going to tell Tristram what happened, ok?"_

"Not a very talkative one, is he?" Tradax laughed, and Alexander snapped back with: "Maybe having his windpipe crushed has something to do with that?"

Caiellis turned his head away from the dazzling lights of night-time Usnaan, feeling another headache coming on just from the flashing glow, and Alex winked conspiratorially at him. He knew full well that the boy had a flashback, no doubt to when he had destroyed that human assassin Johnias had sent to kill them.

"I apologise for that brute Arendus's rough handling of your brother, although there was no other way to convince your father. We had originally planned to use every single other Lucaelian student as a bargaining chip, but since Caiellis went out to the balcony it would be easier to capture him instead. Though we didn't quite expect Meira to die," the Master of Rapture blabbed, and then turned back towards the younger prince. "Evidently you didn't hear me the first time, so I will repeat my question: How do you find Usnaan? It is a far cry from any Lucaelian city, is it not?"

Expecting Caiellis not to respond, Alexander was mildly shocked and also wickedly proud when his younger sibling calmly shot back: "Actually, I find it quite disgusting. The amount of resources you must have wasted on those ridiculous lights is quite astounding."

"And here I was thinking you stared out of the window so long because you were busy admiring it. Well whatever, we're almost at the palace. The one who wants to see you has not arrived yet, so after you have a meal and choose a room I will give you free reign of the city," Tradax explained, "Obviously with the mana inhibitors on, don't want you going and blowing up everything you dislike."

"How hospitable of you," Alex muttered back, instinctively pulling at the cold metal bracelet on his arm to try and removing the numbing presence in the back of his mind – he shuddered empathetically as he thought about how much worse it would have been for Caiellis, who was much more in tune with his magic despite only recently being able to Summon. Even though they were here as captives, the older prince couldn't help but let a little excitement well up in him – he had never visited a non-Lucaelian city, and it would be interesting to see what Usnaan was like, if its reputation as being the hub of the realisation of all desires was true or not.

In twenty minute's time, the airship landed on a large and artificial granite plateau, and both brothers got to their feet and were led out by Tradax. Alex stood protectively in front of Cai when he saw Arendus striding out of another section of the medium-sized vehicle, but the Master of Violence paid the boys no heed and instantly left the grounds of the palace.

"Draal is going straight to Slaughterhouse, his seat of power and the largest bloodsport arena in the Empire," Tradax sneered condescendingly at the back of the larger man. "You are welcome to go there and watch if you want, though I would advise not participating in the events."

"Shame, I wanted to mindlessly throw myself at dangerous Unbound creatures without access to my magic," Cai retorted under his breath, and only Alex heard that.

"Each of the four most popular orders maintains a Passion Quarter of the city – my own Order of Rapture controls the Hedonist's Quarter with the Order of Entertainment merged into our ranks, while Arendus rules over the Champion's Quarter with his Order of Violence. The Order of Gluttony led by dear Ershun resides in the aptly named Glutton's Quarter, and finally the Augur's Quarter was led by that bitch Gretia, before I had her assassinated and also assimilated the Order of Wealth into my own."

"And where is Jarred Redhand in all this? It sounds like the Orders are getting out of control," Alex asked, knowing that the inquiry would be burning in Caiellis's mind as well, though he sensed his younger brother building up his shell – as long as he didn't ignore the older prince, Alexander was perfectly happy with the boy shutting out everyone else.

"Our esteemed Protector is still in mourning after his wife and daughters were assassinated, so the Orders of Passion have taken over in his absence. As the Master of the most influential Order, I am the de facto ruler of Welkas right now," he smiled thinly, the gesture more frightening than reassuring, "So you have my express authority to explore the city and indulge to your heart's content, any bills you incur will be simply rendered null by Wealth."

Caiellis didn't know about Alexander (but doubted the seventeen year old thought differently to him), but he certainly wasn't intending to indulge in any of the things on offer, besides food and water. He could see from the mild anticipation in his brother's blue eyes and the way he was acting (even though Cai wasn't as good as knowing Alex's emotions just from that as his brother was, he had still lived with the older prince all his life) that the older male was eager to explore. Whatever. If that's what he wanted to do, then Cai wouldn't stop him. Instead he would tag along, just like he had used to whenever his brother went somewhere when they were younger – maybe there would be something interesting.

He blinked slowly, registering that he had drifted again, noticing that they were walking through an astoundingly flamboyant palace decorated with expensive and obtrusively bright-coloured fabrics with servants running around, avoiding the gaze of Tradax and bending their backs forwards whenever he walked past. The Palace of Desire was in every way a polar opposite to the Lucernan seat of power in Capitalia Lux, the Lucaelian citadel built to defend and invoking a sense of solemn awe from onlookers, while this extravagant mansion was created to remind citizens of Welkas just how much wealthier the owner was than them.

Tradax led the teenagers into a large room with an ornate mahogany table edged with ruby and gold placed in the centre, with large tapestries depicting what Caiellis assumed were defining points of the revolution. He found it wonderfully ironic that the first picture, showing tyrants lording over the masses in their pleasure dens while the civilians were oppressed and downtrodden, was far closer to the reality of the New Empire instead of the last panel, the one highlighting the freedom.

The table was already set out with a variety of exotic dishes comprising colourful ingredients that the boy had never even seen, and as his green eyes went over them his empty stomach demanded his attention. Despite the fact that he hadn't eaten in the morning, spent the best part of the day using magic and battling against other students, Summoned Orzhova for the first time and almost died in the arms of the Master of Violence, he roughly quashed the notion of food. Who knew what could be in there?

Having no such misgivings, Alexander pulled an empty plate towards him and sat down, sampling some of the succulent-looking meat and savouring the taste on its tongue.

"The finest oxen of the Glutton's Quarter were used to make that. I trust you found it delectable?" Tradax mentioned with a gleam of avarice in his mind, and Alex nodded, impressed. He had never tasted something so delicious in his life – he supposed that when you have an entire fourth of the capital city dedicated solely to creating meals for the rich, then this was only to be expected. The Master of Rapture filled his own plate and sat down at the head of the table, tucking in to his own meal. After a minute, he glanced over at the slight younger prince, who hadn't touched the food. The boy returned his look, green orbs full of resentment and antipathy, and Tradax snorted.

"Are you not going to eat? I'd hate to let your teenager angst get in the way of enjoy a good meal," he jabbed, noticing that while Cai's expression didn't change and that he continued to glower back at the man, Alexander instantly saw that his already thin brother wasn't eating. Tradax's talent that he was most proud of was reading people, allowing him to rise through the ranks of Order through manipulation and deflecting other's intentions. He could use this to better influence people, and right now he could clearly see that while both boys were very mentally strong, and even though after significant amounts of torment Caiellis would break first, the easiest way to get under the skin of either of them would be to hurt the other. Should he ever want to hurt Alexander, the best way to do it would be through Caiellis – Tradax filed that information away until he might need it.

"Cai, you have to eat something," Alex pleaded, looking at the younger boy who stared back coldly. "Come on, bro, at least just eat one thing. Do it for me if not for yourself."

"One thing may be enough," he said under his breath, and when Alex raised his eyebrows in confusion he decided to elaborate. "They could have done anything to the food – you know they consort with demons. It could be poisoned, or be infused with magic that would corrupt us against our father and kingdom."

Alex gulped, suddenly losing his appetite. He hadn't thought of that.

"Now, now Caiellis, do you know nothing about demon magic? I appreciate that you are an intelligent boy, and I know full well that you are probably paranoid and scared by this alien place, but do you not think that if I really wanted you and your brother corrupted, I would have been significantly less subtle about it. You are in my domain. I could simply Summon some demons and subdue you both," he laughed, "Think about it logically. It is in the express wishes of my client that you both be unharmed and unchanged, so you have to eat. Would you prefer I had the guards force feed you?"

"Fine," he snarled, infusing the word with a ridiculous amount of vehemence, glaring with undiluted hatred at the man, who in that instant was immensely grateful to the unknown Yentarian scientist who had the foresight to invent the mana inhibitors. Cai sparsely populated his plate with a few nibbles and chewed slowly on them, looking as if he was indulging the two older males by deigning to eat. His eyes quickly went back to the calculating intensity Tradax had seen in the boy whenever he wasn't in deep, introspective thought – the prince analysed everything, and the Master of Rapture knew he was formulating an escape plan already. He also had realised that Alexander was doing this, although much less than his little brother.

When the boys had finished their meal, he beckoned towards a nearby slave, who carried Caiellis's artefact blade in his shaking hands. The prince took it without comment, strapping the sheath around his slender waist. The gesture said: _I couldn't care less whether you have your weapon or not, nothing you can do will help you get out of Usnaan._

Much as he hated to admit it, without his magical ability he was, and by extension the Sword of Glass was also quite useless. Well, maybe he had the intelligence that others constantly bragged about (Alex always used to, and still did sometimes call him Geek Boy or Boy Genius), but Caiellis knew that this particular talent would be of no use – he was book smart, not world smart like Alex and their father. Reciting a list of trigonometry rules wouldn't help them escape.

"Can we go into the city now?" Alex asked, sensing that the gears in his brother's wind were whirring frantically – the boy never gave himself enough credit about his intelligence, as with magic they were Cai's main strengths, while his own were interacting with people and physical prowess. The kid would be thinking about how to escape, which was becoming less and less of a possibility, and though Alexander devoted some mind-power to it his first priority was keeping Cai safe.

"I encourage you to," Tradax grinned devilishly, "Explore and find what you truly desire. Apart from freedom, of course."

.*.*.*.

The streets were full of those with the money to celebrate, laughing and indulging in the multifarious stalls of Pleasure Avenue; the central path through the Hedonists's Quarter was paved with gold and many of the wealthy Welkalites were dressed in fineries with ostentatious masks depicting several types of Sancturia creatures. A band played a lively and enrapturing tune in the background, taking residence inside a colourful gazebo, with some of the people dancing in front of them.

It must have been at least in the final hour of the day, but many still populated the streets – Caiellis thought it was peculiar that the city came alive at night, as it felt to him as if the Welkalites were wasting the daylight.

Caiellis gulped as he saw a scruffy looking man keeping his head down and trying to look inconspicuous striding through the crowds, freezing in place when guards, or Enforcers as the public called them, shouted at him. Then, the man bolted, crashing through an oblivious couple too wrapped up in their own pleasures to notice anything around them, quickly followed by the gold-clad Enforcers. One of them, a mage of some kind, conjured chains of crackling electricity and threw them at the man, sending jolts up his spasming body and making him shriek in agony.

Alex had to put a restraining hand on his brother's shoulder, who looked as if he was going to interfere, but it was more for his own benefit than Cai's – the contact reminded him that his brother was his first concern, and that if he ran in to try and stop the injustice without his magic they would both probably get hurt, despite Tradax's reassurances to the contrary.

"Come on Cai, let's go somewhere else," he firmly directed the squirt away from the scene of violence, feeling his own blood pressure raise at the brutal treatment of the man just because he couldn't afford to pay to get into the area. Caiellis had always had more of a tender heart, though Alex was compassionate, the fact that he had often had to choose between his little brother and some civilians in the civil war had hardened it. Cai often over-compensated for his inner gentleness with harsh words, feeling as if it was showing weakness and knowing that his father wouldn't want a potential heir to be as pathetic as he was.

"Hey pretty boys," a coquettish voice purred, and Alexander spun around to see an extremely scantily clad woman swinging round a street-lamp and pacing along the wall beside them. He put a hand over Cai's eyes when the boy was about to look round also, the woman's breasts were bare and personally he thought his little brother's innocence could be preserved a little longer.

"Ooh, a protective brother, how hot," she slid down beside them, parading her undeniably attractive body in front of him. Alex felt his cheeks light up slightly, and forced himself to pretend that this whore was just like any other girl, flashing his charming smile at her.

"Children normally aren't allowed in the Augur's Quarter, so you must be something special. Usually I'd find it distasteful to offer my services to little boys, but since your parents must be very rich I'll do anything for a good price," she directed the comment at Caiellis, who went bright red, Alex could feel the boy's cheeks and forehead lighting up under his hand.

"Sorry, but he's not interested in that," a warning note crept into his voice, and she giggled, "And you? I'm sure your little brother can amuse himself for a few minutes while we find somewhere private."

For once Alexander was irritated by the fact that the many of the opposite sex flocked to him, his muscular physique combined with his Lucernan handsomeness and his confident, almost cocky personality proving to be quite irresistible a lot of the time.

"Sorry, not tonight. Go find some other customers, my brother would kill me if I left him alone," he smirked at Caiellis's stifled sigh, managing to tease his brother even in this situation. "Ok gorgeous. See you around."

After she had left and Alexander removed his hand and Cai glared up at him, unamused, a vexed little brother bitch-face plastered on.

"You could have just said: "No thanks, I'm busy"," he complained, and Alex socked him on the arm. The boy massaged it and scowled, and Alexander laughed.

"Don't want to spoil my reputation with the ladies," he gave a patented smile and ruffled his hair. "Dad said that you shouldn't even be thinking about having a girlfriend until you are eighteen, much less start snogging them at fourteen."

"Oh little brother, you have much to learn. Dad would definitely ground me if he knew what I'd been up to," he sniggered at the boy's expression of child-like shock and incredulity. "You haven't done _that, _have you?"

"You talk about it as if it isn't something completely natural," he winked at the adorably aghast Cai, but was secretly glad that he wasn't yet interested in girls, as he had been at the younger boy's age. It made him that much more cute and still like a child, though he was more than adult enough in every other aspect of life.

"Just wait till I tell dad," Caiellis teased, smiling victoriously. Alex nudged him hard in the side, which elicited an irritated grunt. "If you did that then I would have to kill you, baby brother."

"Not if he kills you first," the boy replied, and then a strange sensation of vertigo similar to the teleportation devices employed at the Scholaria Magnus overcame him, pulling him out of his current location. The second he and Alexander disappeared, he could see exact replicas of them continuing to walk down the street, brotherly banter disturbingly like that the actual brothers had been saying spewing from false lips. It was weird, as he couldn't actually perceive much of the teleportation process without his sixth sense, so instead of his mind seeing a tunnel of light Cai just saw the world around him abruptly change.

"Alexander and Caiellis Lucerna," a gruff but familiar voice spoke firmly, as Cai's vision started going back into focus, "Do not be alarmed. You will not be hurt."

When the blurriness dissipated fully, the boy was greeted by the sight of his brother's brown leather jacket right in front of his face, repressing a scowl when he realised that Alex, reacting faster after the disorientation of the teleport, had moved in front of his little brother to better safeguard him. Alexander was only thinking about his safety, but Cai sometimes wished the older boy would let him be more independent. He was _thirteen,_ for angels' sake. He didn't need looking after.

"Welcome to the hideout of the Ja'an Guard, also known now as the New Resistance," another man's voice, much more light-hearted and jovial than his companion's. Caiellis tilted his head to try and see past his brother, prodding him in the back when he couldn't. "Sorry, squirt." the senior teenager apologised and moved to accommodate his brother, who quickly examined the scene presented to him. It was a large, cold room that must have been part of some abandoned sewage facility judging by the erosion of the rock and some questionable stains covering the hard stone. However, abandoned it was no longer, with several archaic-looking terminals powered by some harnessed unbound elementals showing distorted and low-quality scenes of Usnaan that crackled with interference – Cai noted that one showed the progression of the clones of him and his brother.

He blinked in surprise when his eyes were drawn to what was obviously a Summoning, without his magical sense (_Author's Note: Each human in the world is connected, however slightly, so Sancturia, so emotions and sensations are evoked when they come into contact with creatures from there_) he wouldn't have realised it was there without seeing it. The nymph-like being, an Oread if he recalled correctly, regarded the boys with undisguised hostility, echoing her Summoner, a hard-faced woman wearing black Enforcer armour with her right gauntlet painted red.

"Messa's Summoning magically forged the replicas of you that are currently still in Pleasure Avenue, while tech that I improvised from Yentarian 'porters brought you here. I'm Degan, by the way," the red-haired and kind-faced man said. That was strange, although there were other people in the room, they were getting on with their own work, ignoring the princes. Cai could have sworn he heard another voice, but only Messa and this Degan were talking to them.

"The New Resistance is going to help you escape from Usnaan," the clipped and gruff tones rang out again, and Cai turned to look at a screen to his far right – it showed a low-quality picture, but the man in it was undeniably Sergeant Tarkos. "We are not doing this because we care in any way about you personally, but the Resistance needs outside help to ever have a chance of overthrowing the Orders of Passion and freeing the public."

"Already your father must be mustering his armies for a strike to try and free you himself, but he will leave the city burning as both sides slaughter each other – King Marik won't wait to gather all his forces, and as Usnaan is very close to your Kingdom of Light he will attack within a few days at most, and thousands of needless deaths will be incurred. When we help you escape, the Lucaelians will have more time to plan, more information about the city and more forces – almost guaranteeing a victory. Once he has his sons back, your father will still declare war, and the Resistance wants you to tell him about the corruption of the Orders and make sure he spares the innocent," Degan explained efficiently, "We don't have enough time to tell you fully about the escape plan, but it will happen tomorrow. Some of the Ja'an Guard will cause a distraction so me and Messa can secure the device that removes your mana inhibitors, and try to escort you as far out as we can manage without incurring too many casualties. Hopefully your angels will be powerful enough and enough confusion will be caused that you can get into Lucaelian territory."

"Thank you," Alex said after the man ran out of breath from talking so quickly, infusing deep gratitude into the two words.

"You called for me, sir?" an imperfect rendition of someone's speech rang out, and Sergeant Tarkos responded with "Yes, I did. You know about the Ja'an Guard, don't you?" there was a brief pause, and Cai assumed the questioned was nodding their head, "Well, I want you to become a member in the future, and help promote freedom and equality for all. If you were wondering where Caiellis went, here he is."

Kaled's tanned face appeared on the screen, the scar above his left eye glowing in the scarlet light, and Alexander laughed when he saw his brother's former roommate.

"How're you, Kaled?" he asked, grinning widely at the Welkalite, who looked startled. "Fine. Are you both ok? I kinda feel embarrassed."

"We've been better," Caiellis cut in before his overly jovial brother could respond, directing his next inquiry at the other members of the Resistance, "Is there any particular reason why we are speaking to him? If you didn't have much time to explain the plan, why are we wasting it now?"

"I-I thought it would be nice for you to see your friend," Degan paled under the boy's disapproval, glad for the mana inhibitor preventing his feelings being transferred into magical energy. "You Welkalites are far too attached to your emotions."

"Show some respect little man," Alexander reprimanded sternly, and said: "You should probably send us back now. No matter how convincing those clones of us are, I don't want anyone finding out about your plan, or for the Resistance to be jeopardized because of us. Thanks again for helping us escape, and sorry about my brother. He's just tired and stressed."

"It is alright," Sergeant Tarkos said, which surprised all of them, "I heard about how he was choked into semi-unconsciousness by that bastard Arendus Draal – the bruise on his neck looks bad even through the screen, and he even managed to kill Meira Rawl, one of the most proficient agents of Rapture. Coupled with the amount of energy he released during the team-battles at the academy, I'm astonished that he can still stand upright."

Caiellis smiled meekly as a wave of tiredness washed over him as if in response to the man's words, he really needed sleep but quickly quashed the moment of frailty. He refused to look pathetic in front of these people. Alexander discerned his brother hiding the fact that he was exhausted as the façade of strength he put on cracked slightly – it must have been a Lucernan trait to attempt to hide weakness, as Alex did it often himself. So far Cai had not noticed him when he did so in the civil war, but his little brother couldn't conceal his fragility or inner feeling from Alexander. Well, he had thought that until they returned from the war to Capitalia Lux and the palace, and Caiellis, who had previously worn his heart on his sleeve, managed to completely camouflage his emotions, taking on a secretive and blank persona after their dad had interacted with them for the first time in nine years. Luckily, the kid wasn't trying as hard to hide his feelings from Alex now, though the older boy was concerned if Cai ever did that again – as shown by his utter failure to notice the junior boy's self-harming. It had terrified him that Caiellis felt bad enough to even consider doing that to himself, he should have tried to comfort his brother more rather than just letting him attempt the Summoning over and over again.

Degan patted some keys on his console, as Kaled and him both said their goodbyes in unison, Messa and Tarkos keeping stoically silent. The disorientating sensation washed over the boys again, depositing them in the exact position their clones had been in, luckily not very close to anyone else. The brothers locked eyes, silently affirming not to speak of the encounter again – who knows what could be listening in on their conversations?

"Alex, can we go back? It must be almost tomorrow by now, and I feel quite tired," Caiellis asked, trying to be as nonchalant as possible. "Ok little brother, we can head back to the Palace of Desire."

* * *

><p>Summonings in this chapter:<p>

Messa Yaos: Forgeborn Oreads

Spark Elemental


	12. The Seductress

_Apologies for the history lesson in this chapter, but I just wanted to create an interesting past for Aksua. Anyway, this chapter is a bit short, but it was either this one or the next, and I thought it would be best for the escape to be detailed in a single chapter. Plus I just wanted to get one out, because I had severe writer's block while writing this despite already knowing what I want to happen._

Caiellis had barely slept at all when he woke up again from an empty void – as his connection to Sancturia and mana had been severed, his dreams were either expanses of nothingness or the fateful night of Emili's demise. Though the void was preferable to having to relive the night of his mother's death in excruciating detail, which was often the content of his nightmares, the fact that he couldn't visit Orzhova made him feel hollow. Even when he hadn't spoken to her or passed her trial, she had a presence in his mind, and Caiellis was only just realising how much he missed that.

Despite his sixth sense being deactivated due to the sinister black metal inhibitor encircling his thin wrist, the boy still felt a strange, distracting sensation in the back of his mind that disappeared whenever he focussed on it or tried to identify it. It was calling him to the lower palace, that much was certain, and he should be able to get there if anyone but Tradax spotted him – Cai could just say that he was exploring with the clearance of the Master of Rapture.

He currently shared a room with Alexander, the older boy sleeping in the bed to the right and snoring loudly, arms wrapped around himself. They had both agreed to stay in one room in case something was to happen – the sons of Marik were in enemy territory, and said enemies consorted with demons, so the Welkalites could be plotting anything. Mostly, Caiellis knew that his big brother wanted to protect him and the easiest way to do that was to be in the younger boy's vicinity. Cai wished that he had his watch with him, but as he had taken it off to prevent it from being damaged in the team battle yesterday, so it would probably be still in the academy, forgotten. Judging by the fact that it wasn't yet light, the time was likely about two or three o'clock, but the Welkalites would still be active in their celebrations and indulgences.

He tried to shut his eyes and go back to sleep, not wanting to wake up his brother who would be on high alert anyway, but now that he was awake the reprieve from reality just wouldn't come. Feelings of anticipation warred with trepidation in his mind, thinking about the escape plan that would happen today. He kept playing out different scenarios in his mind, wondering just how they could break out of Usnaan against the entirety of the Welkalite military forces, even with access to two potent First Sisterhood Angels.

Cai sighed quietly and sat up in the plump bed – both him and his brother had dumped the vast majority of the absurd amount of cushions on each bed onto the floor, but it still felt like he was being suffocated by the soft mattress. He was obscenely glad that even though he was royalty, he wasn't treated like this in Lucael.

Cai silently slipped out of the quilt, picking up his sheathed relic blade and wrapping the scabbard's belt around his slender waist – as the princes only clothes were the ones they had come in, Tradax had provided them with new garments. Despite the fact that he didn't want to wear Welkalite clothing, he had grudgingly put on some red pyjamas after Alex told him there was no way the younger boy was sleeping in his Lucaelian heir outfit, as it was battered, singed and splattered with some blood. It had incensed Caiellis a bit that Alexander hadn't followed his own advice and kept his own clothes on, just taking off the leather jacket before going to bed, though the junior Lucerna supposed that his brother's attire hadn't been battle damaged.

He had resolved to investigate the disturbance in his mind, and slowly crept across the room to the door, casting occasional glances back to Alex to ensure the older boy wasn't waking up. As he neared the doorway, the seventeen year old mumbled: "Caiellis?"

The named froze, hoping that either his sibling was having a dream that concerned him or that the older boy was still in half-sleep and would fade back into unconsciousness if he didn't make any sudden movements. When a few seconds had passed he was satisfied that Alex had gone back to sleep, he turned back around and inched towards the door. Cai blinked in astonishment when he walked right into a large figure in front of him.

He stumbled back and Alexander grinned wolfishly at him – the older boy could be extremely stealthy and fast if he wanted to be (both brothers could do so but Cai required magic to augment his speed), much to the chagrin of Caiellis over the years, as when they would spar his brother would often be in one position and then suddenly be in the right place for a counter. Alex would always naturally be taller and faster than him, and their gap in strength seemed huge because of their age difference.

"Where are you off to, little dude?" he asked, grinning at his little brother's shock. He hadn't actually been asleep much himself, sensing Caiellis's restlessness in the fact he was constantly moving or adjusting his position. He had instantly detected the younger boy edging to the exit and wondered why he wanted to leave without informing his sibling, not that Alex would ever let him go into the palace in his own. He enjoyed the mixture of bewilderment, admiration and annoyance plastered on his little brother's gaunt face, and playfully shoved the small boy backwards. It was good to be the older brother.

Downcast, Caiellis replied: "I couldn't sleep so I was just going for a quick walk."

"You're a terrible lair," Alex stated, ruffling the mop of brown hair on his brother's head, "So really, where were you going? And why didn't you wake me up and tell me?"

"You just looked so adorable when you were asleep, I couldn't bring myself to wake you up," he flashed a smile, trying to act as much like Alexander as possible to annoy the older boy. "Watch it, kiddo, only I can say things like that. Big brother perk. But seriously, Cai, tell me where and why you were going before I force you to."

Though his tone was playful, Caiellis knew that he had pushed the middle Lucerna enough, and uttered: "So I assume that means you can't feel it?"

"Feel what, Cai? And stop being so vague and mysterious. You're starting to annoy me," a growl entered Alex's voice at the end of his words. _Why is Caiellis being so damn enigmatic? Is it really that hard to just tell me where he was going?_

"It is a sensation in the back of my mind, calling me to the lower palace. If I had use of my magic, I would have able to pinpoint what it is and tell you," Caiellis explained, automatically rubbing the malicious metal that dug into the skin on his right wrist. He hoped that his intent eyes would convey a further point: _If I can detect something without my mana, it is surely something significant. It could help us __in our escape plan, or prove to be detrimental to the Resistance._

Judging by the understanding in Alex's blue orbs, his older brother had hopefully caught on to the underlying message – they had agreed not to talk about the plan in case someone – or _something_ – was listening in. The teen nodded his head, and Caiellis continued, "Since I couldn't sleep, I was just going to take a look. I should have woken you, but I thought you would want as much rest as possible."

"Good job I awoke when I did, I would've had a fit if you were gone," Alex chuckled, "You can detect something with the suppressors? Is yours on properly?"

"I think so," Caiellis reaffirmed the statement by trying to summon mana, pulling at the metal wristband – they had already established the futility of the act last night, when Alexander had attempted to remove Cai's but instead making it dig in more. That was how they were designed, the more interference from those without the key the more they tightened. Luckily, it wasn't yet cutting off his blood supply.

"So, are we going to go back to sleep or check this thing out? Personally, I don't think I should be encouraging you considering something could happen, but it's your choice." Alex asked, breaking the youngster out of his reverie

"We will investigate," the boy stated in his manner of fact royal pronouncement way that he had recently developed, and slid past his brother to the door. Alex grabbed his arm, the hand wrapping fully around the boy's bicep, and warned: "But no unnecessary risks, alright? If there are too many guards, or something dangerous is going to happen, we leave immediately. Understand?"

"That's fine. Though we are going to have to be stealthy. Don't want that bastard Tradax finding out about our little trip," Caiellis grinned, and Alexander softly chastised with: "Language, little dude. Lead on."

.*.*.*.

The brunette sat in her cell, casually examining her nails – even though she hadn't left her incarceration for seven years, they were perfectly manicured. Everything about her was disturbingly flawless, from her unblemished and milky skin to her impeccably kept brown hair that swept down her shoulders. Nor did her body structure suggest that she had been imprisoned in the most high-security facility in Welkas for years, the woman's form lithe and shapely when she should have been emancipated and insubstantial. However, she had gorged enough to last several hundred years.

Her beauty was dazzling, which was why there were no guards stood outside of the enchanted cell – even with the wards that prevented mana usage, the cage bars constructed for the same metal as the inhibitors, they had no chance against her charm. However her hazel eyes didn't match the purity of the rest of her, the brown orbs full of malice and condescension. After all she had done for the ungrateful Welkalites, they had gone and locked her up in this dingy chamber. She wasn't at all concerned, she had nothing to fear from them, but it was so _boring _being stuck there. She wanted to feast, feel the blood of her victims run down her flesh as they realised they were helpless against her allure.

Aksua thought back to the events that led to her present circumstances, she had taught the Masters of the Welkalite Orders of Passion how to enter in an Infernal Bargain, sacrificing their Summonings to be able to conjure powerful demons. That had been after she was forced to flee Lucael after she was almost killed. Aksua was born over a hundred years ago, when she had been abducted from her village by the vampires of the darkness that had demanded tribute – instead of killing the teenage girl, they "gifted" her with the power of vampirism and taught her how to use Black mana. The elders of the clan had sensed a great potential within her, and after a few years of learning their ways they planned to use her as an offering to the Bloodchief of the vampires, Kalitas, firm ally of the current Lucaelian monarch Xarius and overall ruler of all clans.

She had been forced to please him, become his slave while he abused her, pretend that she loved him to survive. The vampires had become lax in the years of decadence, gorging on the tributes they were sent by Xarius from the fearful populace. Aksua built up a hatred for her forced lover, and that burning hatred grew and grew until Xarius was overthrown and the new Queen Matrice led a fiery crusade in the darkness of Lucaelian lands, purging the vampires from existence before returning back to their cities. She used the distraction of the siege of Kalitas's nocturnal palace to murder to ruler, sealing the doom of her species and fleeing into the abyss, into the inner darkness – the only shadow remaining in Lucael now the power of the Lucernas had grown and grown.

Aksua learnt new, darker powers in her time in the shadows, falling under the tutelage of one of the greater demons of Sancturia (second highest in rank to Archdemons, but the most powerful demonic creature that could manifest itself in reality without needing a Summoner) – her master had never told her his true name, telling her it would rend her flesh and shatter her mind into pieces, just giving her a Summoning of Black mana. The demon wanted to be known as the Perverter of Truth.

Aksua knew she was being manipulated in some way, but didn't care. She finally had enough power to get her vengeance on the society that had betrayed and abused her. Aksua went on bloody rampages throughout the villages, leaving them full of exsanguinated corpses as she drained every last innocent dry, gorging on the blood and the feeling of ecstasy that came with it, after all the years with her meals carefully restricted by Kalitas to keep her subservient. She travelled from village to village, killing them all and feeding but destroying each in a unique way to make it appear that the attacks were the caused by different creature of the abyss so that the Lucaelians would not launch a crusade to hunt down and slay her.

Eventually, after about eighty years, when she had consumed enough blood to last several centuries, the sensation of bliss that came with feeding faded, becoming more and background and less and less pleasurable. Desperate, she thought that increasing the quantity of her meals would bring back the ecstasy, and recklessly attacked a Lucaelian city, the now-annihilated Vectura, city of Transportation. There she was confronted and assaulted by trained soldiers and killed them all. After feeding upon a battlemage, Aksua then realised that quantity was not going to help her, but the quality of her victims mattered a huge amount. However, before she was able to put this into action, a Lucerna confronted her. She did not know that the royal family was active in the city she had chosen, and was almost killed by the young man, who Aksua would later know as Johnias. She retreated back into the abyss to nurse her wounds for seven years, and when the king's brother betrayed him and began building armies in the darkness, even turning Vectura into an abyssal city, Aksua saw an opportunity that she couldn't miss.

Johnias welcomed her into his midnight citadel, and asked her to do one very special task for him – drain his brother Marik, monarch of the Kingdom of Light, dry. He promised her that Lucernas, in his words the strongest magic-users in the world, would be far more delicious than anything she had ever experienced. To that end, she set out to seduce the king, taking the place of one of the captains of his army and slowly becoming closer to him.

That had been a mistake, and once again Aksua was almost murdered by a Lucerna. Knowing that she couldn't flee into the darkness, as Johnias would be very displeased by her failure, she escaped into a changing empire – Welkas. There she met a budding member of the Order of Rapture, Tradax, who she gave knowledge of Infernal Bargains to in exchange for letting her reside in the city and feed – Aksua was too weak to fight for herself. She also taught the other members of his little sect – Arendus, Gretia and Ershun – how to contact demons. However, after the man used his newly acquired Demonic Summoning to gain control of the Order he locked her away, fearing her power to overthrow him and trapping her in this cell.

Nevertheless, Aksua was still a vampire, so her physical senses were far more receptive than her magical, which had been nullified, and when she felt the two members of Lucaelian royalty enter Usnaan it was a perfect moment to kill two birds with one stone – to escape and satisfy her hunger for Lucerna blood. To this end, she used discreet magic that bypassed the wards to try and contact the princes, lead them down here. She knew that they would already be planning an escape, realising that they were captives by utilising her ultra-perceptive hearing to listen in on their conversations with Tradax throughout the palace. She had many abilities that she had not revealed to the man when they had worked together, and this was one of them.

The mana inhibitors had at first prevented the princes from hearing her call, but luckily the younger boy was an exceedingly prominent mage, managing to detect her faint signal and convincing his protective brother to go down into the dungeons with him. Aksua inhaled deeply, relaxing her limbs and ensuring she looked as attractive as possible – as she had been turned into a vampire at the young age of twenty, Aksua was very beautiful. The fact that she had consumed so much blood in her life meant that she had a functioning circulation, and while Aksua still had a pale Lucaelian complexion, she wasn't deathly like the others of her now-extinct race. Her charm would work better on the older boy, Alexander if she remembered correctly – when she had started a relationship with Marik during the civil war, subtly influencing him with her coercive powers of seduction, the king had told her about his two young sons, ten and six at the time, and how he hadn't seen them for two years.

Aksua composed herself, running over what she was going to say in her head, offering the boys to help them escape if they could get her out of this cage. She would easily be able to release them from the mana inhibitors, and together they could flee from Usnaan – after that, Aksua would finally feast on Lucernan lifeblood. The two teenagers stumbled into the dungeon, both of them alert but still sleepy. She flashed a flirtatious smile as her eyes locked with the handsome blue orbs of the blonde, the eyes widening in shock as Alexander saw the most alluring woman he had ever laid eyes upon. They continued to stare at each other for a few seconds, longing welling up in the older boy's chest as she winked at him.

"So me and Alexander have answered your call. Who are you?" Caiellis cut in, interrupting the short connection between the two, leaving Alex dazed for a second. She turned her gaze upon the smaller prince, who returned the look sternly, his expression hardening. "Hello. My name is Aksua, and I am a Lucaelian, like you."

"I'm not entirely sure the darkness constitutes part of the Kingdom of Light," he replied evenly, hatred evident in his tone. Aksua blinked, surprised at his realisation of that already – maybe Marik had warned his sons about her. She doubted that the king would want to tell his boys about the little affair he had with a servant of Johnias, especially after she tried to kill him; Marik's main reason for letting the pretty Lucaelian captain get close to his was because he craved comfort after the death of his wife, evacuation of his children and the betrayal of his twin brother. Aksua had realised that the king never truly loved her, which didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, he was still too attached to his dead wife and former lover. However it was still a possibility, however slim – she would know whether he had or not if the boys revealed her true name, as she had told Marik that the night she went to kill him. "Whatever you want from us, vampire, you aren't getting it."

"Is that so? Alex, what do you think about that?" Aksua utilised the abbreviation of the teen's name in an attempt to seem more familiar with him – maybe she could get him to convince his little brother that she would be worthy of help. The fact that Caiellis used the term "vampire" meant that the kid had managed to recognise the signs of the condition that Aksua had never truly been able to erase, although after the extinction of her race most of the Lucaelians had never heard anything about them, much less knew that they had even existed at one point. Obviously this boy had researched very deeply into the creatures of the abyss, more than his father and brother had done, despite the former having to wage a war against them.

"If you are a servant of Black mana, then you won't be receiving any help from us," Alex mumbled, averting his eyes from the prisoner and instead preferring to look at the stone floor. He knew he was going red, which was embarrassing – the middle Lucerna had always thought he was very confident with the fairer sex, but couldn't deny that he wanted Aksua. Caiellis was right, traitors did not deserve aid, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to refuse her if he met her eyes. _Concentrate, _he roughly admonished himself, _Ignore her charm! She is clearly trying to manipulate you. Your little brother's safety is far more important than any attraction you have towards this bitch!_ He steeled himself and looked straight at Aksua, glad his little mental chat had allowed him to focus his priorities and become immune to her charm.

Aksua smiled – _let's see him try to resist when I am out of this cage –_ and turned back to the younger boy. The barriers of resolve they constructed to try and withstand her glamour were absolutely adorable, as was the older boy's protectiveness of his younger sibling. She detected that Alex strengthened his determination with thoughts of his little brother. This could be useful to control them in the near future.

"If you aren't willing to help me, then I suppose I can't aid you in escaping Usnaan," she sniffed petulantly like a small child would, delighting as Caiellis's features twisted into an unamused scowl. "Such a shame. We would have had so much fun together."

"How can you help us leave?" Alex asked despite himself, knowing his little brother would be disappointed that his instincts had led them down here and convinced they should get something out of the venture. Cai was busy analysing the situation in his mind – Aksua was clearly a vampire, she must have been the last of that race, otherwise she would have denied it by now, making his earlier assumptions correct. Apart from freedom, the only other reason he could think of for wanting to help them was to drain them. Nonetheless, the Resistance's plan for getting them out had been very vague, not revealing details about how they would combat the entire army of the Welkalite capital. Maybe having some unexpected assistance could turn the tide in their favour – but right now Caiellis wasn't going to consider the notion of freeing Aksua, not now they already had escape plans.

"Tradax leaves the keys to this cell in his private sanctum," she moved closer to the bars and lowered her voice. Aksua knew this because of other abilities that she had never divulged to the Master of Rapture – in fact her own Summoning, Nocturon, was spread throughout the Palace of Desire, ready to follow her mental commands. The boys need only retrieve the key from it and unlock the cell. She whispered conspiratorially, "I have powers in place that would allow you to easily get it, and once you let me out I can easily destroy the mana disablers of yours. Then, with the forces of light and darkness combined, we can easily defeat those that try to stop us and escape."

"We already have darkness on our side," Caiellis uttered gloomily, "We don't need yours."

"Quite right, young Caiellis! Put the wench in her place!" an amused voice boomed down into the stairs, and all three of them cracked their heads around in stupefaction and Tradax smiled down at them. "Anyway, do you not think it is a bit past your bedtime? I don't want to be a strict parent, but if you insist on going out of your room in the middle of the night I might have to post guards."

Alexander sensed his little brother bristling at the honeyed barbs Tradax spoke, and placed a restraining arm around the younger boy's shoulders, though he shared his resentment. _How dare this bastard even think to call himself our parent..._

Aksua glowered angrily at her captor, smouldering frustration heavily present in her captivating gaze, as the Welkalite sneered back. This was inconvenient.

"How nice of you to visit, Tradax," she spat, wishing she was able to use the full extent of her magic, then he wouldn't be smiling. "How many years has it been?"

"Too many, it seems. Have you forgotten who rules this empire?" he gloated back, spreading his arms wide.

"Jarred Redhand?" Alexander offered sarcastically, winking as his little brother grinned in approval.

"Get back to your room. Now," the man ordered, and the boys both slunk off. Caiellis needed some sleep anyway.


	13. Gluttony Overcome

They were walking down Pleasure Avenue, basking in the light of the Welkalite sun – Alex had experienced Lucaelian light and knew this to be inferior, but his little brother hadn't and enjoyed the feeling of sunlight on his pale skin; boy would he be impressed if Lucael ever was sunny. Alexander tried to appear relaxed, but couldn't halt the slightly increased beating of his heart, and the anticipation that coursed through his veins. He liked combat, testing his skill against others, but wasn't addicted to it like many of the members of Violence. He could understand now the reasons why little Cai thought differently, but when they were younger he didn't know why the runt wouldn't want to wrestle with his older brother – though they often had because of arguments and sibling spats.

Alex stared at the back of the boy's mop of brown hair for a second, he often got worried whenever they had to fight, despite there being plenty of that in the Lucaelian war. However, him and Cai made a good team, brought about by their familial bond and intimacy with each other's fighting styles due to many battles with demonic creatures – the older brother was more reckless, quicker and stronger which meant he almost always charged into battle, and while to someone who didn't know him Caiellis would appear dynamic and also quick, the junior Lucerna fought in a precise and calculating manner, methodically taking away his opponent's advantages and then striking the finishing blow when he was sure of victory.

When the younger boy became old enough to fight, Alexander always tried to prevent his little brother from getting hurt, which had often caused himself to get injured instead. He had taken the front with Tristram, while Tybalt and his brother provided magical support from the back. Now that Caiellis had his own angel, his fighting prowess would be amplified to levels similar to his older brother – though Alex had more experience and would still look out for the kid. He could never get rid of that instinct if he tried.

Caiellis suddenly stopped moving, cocking his head to one side as if listening to a silent melody only he could hear and causing Alexander to nearly bump into him. The littlest Lucerna had often done similar things before, one of his more peculiar talents in sensing imminent violence that everyone, including Alex, had attributed to his magic. Maybe the premonitions were more innate, but he supposed that his brother had detected Aksua's call even through the mana inhibitors. Was Caiellis's mana really that powerful?

The younger boy turned around, his green orbs full of expectation and excitement, which was unusual – Cai usually detested bloody and violent fighting, so this was something different.

"It is going to start," he stated simply, and Alex took that moment to squeeze the younger boys shoulders. _Urrgh, he's so thin. Someone like him shouldn't be fighting, _he thought, before pushing them from his mind. It was distracting enough for him to be trying to protect Caiellis in the midst of combat, much less considering the implications of what could happen to him.

"I finally get to see Orzhova in action." he said enthusiastically, which made Cai smile. "You know the drill, little bro – no unnecessary risks, back me up when we are fighting. Remember that this isn't a competition"

"The same applies to you. I can handle punishment," he responded evenly, latching onto Alexander's previous thoughts, just as a loud explosion echoed in the distance. They both spun towards the sound, a huge plume of smoke rising up in the other side of the Hedonist's Quarter, quite close to them. Several civilians – Cai reminded himself that only the corrupt and wealthy were allowed access to the area, so shouldn't start feeling sympathy for them – started screaming in panic as several more detonations boomed in different locations of the city. Those still locked in their own pleasures were knocked out of the way as the general population of the Avenue charged away from the explosions.

A pool of molten metal began coalescing at the side of a nearby sewer grate, and both boys grinned as the familiar form of Messa's Oread began to construct itself in front of them, holding a sinister metal device in her hand that seemed unaffected by the scorching heat she emitted. It passed the thing to Alexander without comment, as yet more discharges shook the earth. The older boy touched the thing to his mana inhibitor, sighing when the block on his magic was removed, as he quickly cast White enchantments upon himself. He brushed the device over Caiellis's own bracelet, the younger boy started laughing as his magic returned to him. Satisfied, the Oread dissipated into burning embers that slowly fell to the ground, no doubt returning to Messa's side.

"Alexander. Let us show these Welkalites the true meaning of the word power," he unsheathed the Sword of Glass, the blade lighting up with a mixture of golden and shadowy energy as his mana coursed through his veins, a revitalising feeling that made him wonder how he could have existed in the short time without it.

"Got it, squirt," he replied, as a group of gold-clad Enforcers ran round the corner, one of their mages gasping in surprise when he sensed the sudden released of mana. There was five of them, wreathed in Red auras that probably augmented their speed. Caiellis analysed the situation quickly – there was only a single supportive magic user, who was beginning to Summon, while the rest of them wielded halberds that crackled with crimson lightning.

"Alexander and Caiellis Lucerna. Stand down before we are forced to subdue you," one of them declared, and Cai picked up on the note of fear in his voice. He pushed a few guilty thoughts out of his mind, recalling how the Enforcers abused the populace and took pleasure in it. Alex rolled his shoulders, knowing that his brother would be suffering from a slight moral crisis because of the fact they had to kill these guards.

"Sorry, that's not going to happen," he replied, Red and White mana flowing through his limbs as circles of the same colour radiated across the floor. Caiellis felt his brother's familiar strong magic rising in power level, a comforting sensation that made him feel safer. The Enforcers then rushed them, the mage shrieking at his subordinates to take down the prince before he Summoned, conjuring up his own devil which launched itself at them.

"Aurelia!" the boy cried, as the patterns of the ground flashed upwards, disintegrating the devil and forcing the Welkalites to stagger back to avoid its fate, covering their eyes at the intensity of the incandescent light. The angel swept her fiery gaze across her cowering foes, glowering in disgust at their opulent armour.

"I am going to give you one chance. Flee now and avoid my wrath," the Warleader spoke, her voice suffused with an otherworldly resonance. She ignited her twin swords for effect, and the Enforcers took one look at her and fled quickly.

"That was easy," Alex boasted, and Caiellis said: "They were obviously in the job just for money. We will have to face much more debased and corrupt enemies before we can escape Usnaan, and I fear that they won't take the chance to flee."

"We will show them now mercy, young Caiellis," Aurelia stated, the beating of her wings blowing the boy's hair behind his face. Cai always felt a feeling of awe whenever his brother Summoned, but now that he was capable of doing it himself their abilities weren't so far apart. Aurelia knew him quite well, and also knew just how much Alexander wanted to protect his little brother. She felt sorry for the youngest Lucerna, having to deal with the disgrace of the First Sisterhood – the child was pure and innocent; Orzhova certainly didn't deserve him.

.*.*.*.

Aksua lounged in her cell, absently twirling her long fingers through her silken hair to try to distract her mind from the frustration she felt. She might have been able to convince the brothers to aid her, despite the little one's severe misgivings, if Tradax hadn't appeared. Once more she wished that she had just drained the man when she first met him, instead of entertaining his notions of gaining more power in preparation for her vengeance against the Lucaelian monarchy.

When the vampire had first heard the reverberating detonations in her underground cell, some rubble being shook from the walls outside (the interior was far too secure for that to happen), she contemplated Caiellis's final words from the morning: "We already have darkness on our side. We don't need yours." Aksua mused that the subliminal message present in the statement was that the boys already had an escape plan. Well, that was unfortunate. Aksua could easily wait a few more years, but was starting to get incredibly bored of the monotony of each day, and being trapped in a cell away from the pleasures of life definitely wasn't how she wanted to spend any more time. Her patience was ending, and she thought about how else she could escape.

Caught up in her own thoughts, it took Aksua a few minutes to notice the figure stood outside of her cell. Startled and annoyed at herself, she quickly examined the enigmatic woman – she wore clothing of a design that the vampire had never encountered before, a red kimono speckled with midnight black spots. The figure had her identity concealed by a bone-white mask in the shape of some sort of fox, and her heart rate was perfectly normal. That irritated Aksua, it wasn't unheard of for women to fall for her charm, yet those that didn't usually felt slight trepidation in her presence – even influential figures like Kalitas, Marik Ensis and Johnias Otium Lucerna had elevated their heartbeat when looking upon her beauty.

"And you are?" she inquired casually, moving to sit in a more comfortable position while regarding the mysterious figure with indulgently curious eyes, tossing her brown hair to one side. Sea-green eyes, much less impressive than young Caiellis's emerald splendour, glared out of the mask, and a hard voice scowled: "Your saviour."

Aksua stifled a snicker, amused by her proclamation. The self-righteous were always the most fun to pervert from their path, of so her demonic mentor had told her, saying: "_The pious will choke upon their sanctimony._" The vampire rose to her full height and looked down haughtily at the masked one, who ignored her sneer and pulled out a key from the folds of her outfit. Normally, Aksua would have responded with something sarcastic and demeaning, but considering the unknown girl was freeing her she refrained from doing so. Maybe she would drain the little bitch after she was let out. She hadn't feasted on blood in years.

Aksua heard the metal door clang open and she swiftly stepped out, revelling in the sensation of her magic returning and flooding through her veins, the immensely potent Black mana. The vampire laughed loudly, and then looked around, mildly surprised. Her inscrutable saviour had disappeared, leaving not a trace of her presence there. Interesting. Aksua wondered what her motives were for a second, and then soon realising that she couldn't care less. All that mattered was that she was finally free.

The vampire sensed a gargantuan amount of hated White and also Red mana released above her in the city, assuming that this must have been one of the princes, Alexander if she was correct. She licked her lips: despite being a very formidable opponent herself, Aksua didn't want to risk being obliterated by a First Sisterhood angel. No, she would wait to confront the heirs after they had escaped the city, eliminate the inevitable pursuers that the Master of Rapture would send, and wait for the princes to be tired out. Then, she would strike. Then, she would finally taste Lucerna blood.

.*.*.*.

Aurelia crashed into the gore-covered horror, the blood-drenched creature raking her silver armour with bony protrusions jutting out from its raw and crimson skin. Her curved blade burnt through its flesh as she drove it downwards, while the straight-edged sword in the Warleader's left hand blocked a brutal club that was swung down at her. The spawn of Red and Black mana screeched in a crazed frenzy as she stabbed her weapon in further, purging the corrupt flesh beneath it. Aurelia snarled in angelic fury and pressed the attack.

Alexander swung a fist of flaming rage at the Summoner of the horror, a brutish mage wearing the gladiator's mask common to those in the Order of Violence. The patrol had intercepted the two boys and the angel just after the Rapture Enforcers fled, sneering at their cowardice. Two other warriors were battling with Caiellis, both wielding savage and heavy weapons. The youngest prince hadn't deigned to Summon yet, and was holding off the fighters and their shrieking minions with delaying and numbing White mana. The man that fought the middle Lucerna dodged the incoming blow, and swiftly riposted, his cleaver slicing through the air and thudding into the adolescent's arm.

Grunting as the metal bit into him, Alex twisted at the impact, managing to force the cleaver to slide upwards instead of cutting into the arm. When it brushed over the Swords of Flame on his right bicep, a flare of mana automatically blasted out and knocked the gladiator back. He let out a bolt of flame that burnt into the man, making him howl in pain, and roughly shoved the leader away from him. Alex clasped his hands together and conjured a hammer of Red and White mana, charging at the recovering gladiator. The Welkalite sent a pulse of rippling shadow in the prince's direction, who responded with dispelling light emitted from his whole body.

Noticing its Summoner in peril, the horror-spawn roughly knocked Aurelia aside and ran at Alexander, but not before a helix of blazing energy shot from the Warleader's crossed swords. It slammed into the back of the creature, making it scream in agony as its raw flesh began sizzling in the purity of the magic. Stunned, it failed to notice Aurelia diving at it from above, and with a cry on her lips the angel swept her twin swords into its throat, decapitating it in an explosion of blood and ash. She then went to the aid of Caiellis, who was busy avoiding the relentless attacks of the other Welkalites, knowing from years of battling alongside Alexander that this was what the big brother would want him to do.

The Violence magic-user growled in pain and fury as its Summoning was brutally murdered, and Alex took this chance to arc his sun-hammer at his opponent. The gladiator instinctively raised his cleaver, and the hard metal cracked off when the crushing weapon came into contact with it. Continuing on with his momentum, Alex swung the hammer further downwards, slamming into the man with a thunderous crash that crushed him into a bloody pulp. The weapon vanished, and the Order mage-warrior groaned as he died.

With the help of his brother's angel, Caiellis easily finished off the rest of the Welkalites, his face blank as he participated in the killings. The boy flicked the blood from his sword and nodded in thanks to Aurelia, who flew back the short distance to her Summoner's side. Cai could feel a significant release of mana, predominantly Red, a few hundred metres to the west of them, and assumed that it must be the Ja'an Guard occupying the vast majority of the military. He felt like maybe the Resistance hadn't thought it through much – the whole thing seemed a little rushed. Maybe they had done it to avoid the mysterious person that had wanted to see the princes, getting them out of the city beforehand – but where could they have got that information? Even Tradax had said at breakfast that he didn't know exactly when said person would arrive.

"Cai, you ok?" his older brother asked, walking past him and patting his shoulder. The smaller boy hadn't sustained any wounds, he fought too carefully for that to happen, considering his movements to ensure they were safe enough before enacting them. He noticed the cut on Alex's right bicep and his eyes lit up with concern – his healing magic, while better than his brother's and father's, wasn't very powerful, despite having often used it to patch up the more reckless older boy in the past. Cai instructed: "Let me see to that, it looks painful."

"It's alright," he responded, brushing off his little brother's concerns. However, the boy could be quite persistent if he wanted to, and pulled his sibling's muscular arm towards him, his palm lighting up with soothing mana. The older boy was about to knock his sibling away when Aurelia cut in: "Alexander, you need to be at maximum fighting efficiency, and I know that wound is hurting you more than you are letting on. Let your brother help you."

"Thank you," Caiellis exclaimed, a victorious grin breaking out on his face. Alex sighed at the kid's wilful perseverance, letting the slender male heal his arm. He didn't want Cai to waste his mana repairing the older boy's wounds: his little brother shouldn't have to worry about him, although Caiellis tried his damned hardest to worry about everything.

"Let's go," he pulled away when the pain stopped, and began walking briskly towards the north of the town. "So Cai, when are you going to Summon? I think it would be best to wait until I can't sustain Aurelia anymore."

"Uh-huh. I'm going to keep her in reserve until we need her. And we will need her soon," he replied vaguely cryptically, leaving Alex wondering whether the younger prince had sensed something. He dismissed the thought – despite his little brother hiding things from him in the past month, Cai wasn't stupid enough to try and keep potentially important information from him in the middle of a battle.

The streets of the meeting point of the Hedonist's and Glutton's Quarters were mostly empty, apart from those too distracted to bother with fleeing the battle-zone, and they were far too intoxicated to pose a threat. Alexander walked next to a brightly-coloured stall covered with intricately designed cupcakes, and began taking a few of the most appealing ones, packing them into one of the bags and then fastening it at his waist. There was no telling how far they would have to go, and the cakes would provide short bursts of energy to keep them going.

"This Glutton's Quarter must be perfect for you. I swear all you think about is food," he sniggered, though he was glad that Alex had the foresight to think about sustenance – Cai himself was pondering whether the Resistance had arranged transportation or not, because although Civitas Sol was relatively close it would take them the best part of a day to get there at a fast pace, and would be easy prey for any Welkalite hunters.

"Hey, you know that's not true," he grinned back, lightly shoving the younger boy – both of them were still alert, but it didn't hurt to participate in some banter to lighten the tense mood. Caiellis snickered, "Actually, that's right: Food _and _girls!"

"I live inside of Alexander's mind, and I have to say that I support these claims," Aurelia added, which made both boys laugh. The angel must of known that she was making a joke, but her deadpan delivery coupled with her serious gaze made it all the more hilarious. Alex shook his head in mock indignation when he noticed his angel winking conspiratorially to his younger brother. Aurelia did have a nice side.

They paced through the colourful streets, the boy's agitation steadily rising every time they entered a new, and empty, avenue. This was starting to get strange – yes, the Resistance was providing an excellent distraction considering the sheer amount of mana that was being released in the east, but surely some soldiers should have followed them into the Glutton's Quarter? Surely someone must be trying to prevent the Lucaelian captives from just leaving?

As if in answer to his thoughts, both Aurelia and Caiellis immediately tensed, halting in the middle of the street. Cai shut his eyes and then opened his left, the Lens of Guilt clouding his natural vision with darkness and blotting out his older brother and the angel, as their intents were pure and good-willed. He had definitely felt a potent source of Black mana approaching, mingled with less powerful flecks of Red mana, and he looked through mundane objects, clearly viewing what he had suspected: a huge, bloated mass of corpulent scarlet sat like a diseased heart at the centre of pulsing tendrils filled with malicious intent.

"Cai. I'm assuming that you can detect that?" the older boy inquired tensely, sensing the enemies blocking their path a few streets away, probably located on the central pathway through the Glutton's Quarter: Banquet Street, where the vast majority of the more renowned food establishments were located. The thirteen year old nodded quickly, opening his right eye so that he could see the physical realm of Innocence. Alex had only see his brother do that right after he completed Orzhova's trial, and could feel Cai's innocent and pure White mana welling up with him, as well as a more sinister but not evil dark energy. Maybe he was going to finally get to see the Angel of the Black Sun, and couldn't help but notice Aurelia suppress a scowl of severe resentment.

"So the little princelings have finally arrived," a deep, gurgling voice jeered, and Alex narrowed his eyes as a vibrant palanquin carried by tall and unnaturally muscled Enforcers each with a faceplate that concealed their identity, came round the corner. Inside the brightly coloured carriage sat a gigantic fleshy mound, a human so far removed from normal bodily proportions that Alexander would have found him ludicrous if they weren't in the middle of the Glutton's Quarter. Swathed in golden robes, the plump man was sat in the centre if the carriage, while a decrepit and thin Unbound creature help up a bowl of food. Occasionally, a fatty limb, pink like a newborn, would pop out of the fabric and grab a handful of the foodstuff, dragging back towards a bald head that sunk into the blubber of his shoulders. The man's chins wobbled as he spoke, and Caiellis would have laughed if the circumstance wasn't so dire – he could detect a deep and potent corruption emanating from the Welkalite, corruption that reminded him of the dark days of the civil war – the corruption of demons.

"Ershun, I presume?" he responded civilly, a crimson clump of impurity superimposed over the physical image of the man in the Lens of Guilt. He slowly paced backwards, intending to get enough space to Summon and hoping that his older brother would pick up on that. Cai was taking no chances when demons were involved, they would probably need two First Sisterhood angels to defeat it. Greater demons differed greatly from lesser ones and devils, manifestations of sin and corruption and Black mana incarnate. Despite his utterly non-threatening appearance, the Master of Gluttony would be able to Summon a demon, which could be potentially catastrophic for the boys.

"Did my good friend Tradax speak of me?" Ershun asked, and was greeted by unflinching silence from the two Lucernas. Shaking his head, he took a moment to grab a handful of biscuits and stiff them into his gaping maw, chomping on them as his robes were covered in even more crumbs. When he had finished, the Master of Gluttony said: "Anyway, Tradax told me to offer you a final chance to surrender peacefully. So what'll it be? I personally think you should take his kind offer, there is much of Usnaan you haven't enjoyed yet. You haven't even eaten from my own Glutton's Quarter yet! You especially, little Caiellis, you could do with having some meat on those bones of yours."

Seeing the final Master of the Orders of Passion completed Cai's mental picture of the political situation of Welkas – as Tradax had said, the Master of Rapture was indeed the de facto ruler of the New Empire. While Jarred mourned of the loss of his family, (the youngest prince wouldn't put it past Tradax to have manipulated the Protector into staying that way), Tradax had slowly tighten his stranglehold over the Empire – Ershun was clearly a blubbering fool, eager to take orders from his "equals" and having no ambitions of his own, resorting to petty insults to try and rile the youngest prince, whereas Arendus Draal was enigmatic and utterly unconcerned with politics so long as he could continue to participate in violence.

Finally, that left the now-dead Gretia, and judging by Tradax's colourful choice of words when mentioning her she had been the only other Master capable of rivalling him, opposing his manipulation of the Empire with her own motives of doubtlessly similar intent. So he had ordered her assassination, assimilating the influential Order of Wealth under his leash, likely electing a new Master that would follow his commands. Cai pushed the thoughts deep into his mind for further reference, for now focussing on preparing himself for his Summoning, letting Alex do the talking.

"While my little brother may be thin, I think he would prefer to eat Lucaelian food in the comfort of his home. As would I," Alex replied curtly, letting his anger rise to amplify his Red mana, also sensing that this Ershun could call upon a demon.

"Very well. You force my hand. Though dear Tradax will be very disappointed if I damage you," he laughed, as titanic amounts of Black energy began to swirl around him. Alex felt a sudden need to eat, a primal and ravenous desire erupting in the forefront of his mind making him want to gorge until he was sick, and then continue. Just as the mad flow of thoughts battered as his barriers of self-control, a feminine hand was placed on his shoulder, pure and righteous hatred reinforcing his own determined emotions and fortifying his mind.

"A demon's temptations can be very captivating," Aurelia's furious words burned through his mind – all angels, without exception, hated demons with a passion reserved for them solely, and when Alex was freed from the pull of Ershun's magic he could clearly see the mass of shadowy mana building up around the palanquin. The older boy's eyes then instantly switched to his little brother, remembering that the younger Lucaelian hadn't yet Summoned and so could have succumbed to the temptations. Caiellis gave him a disapproving glance when he noticed Alex's gaze resting on him, however the fact that his left eye was pure midnight whilst the other was filled with luminosity meant that none of his emotions were transferred.

The tempest of dark delight grew in power, swirling around the Master of Gluttony and pulsating with the need to indulge and consume. To match the force of the Welkalite's mana, Caiellis started his own process of Summoning, the twin opposite forces of light and dark finding a balance within him as the Black Sun on his cheek blazed with energy. The fact that he had Summoned once before meant that the ritual would be much quicker this time around, although it was still dramatic and slow compared to others. He focussed upon positive energy first, waiting as swirls of golden radiance began to twirl around him, and then ignored the White and pulled negative thoughts to the forefront of his mind. Cai felt Orzhova bolster his own hatred of Johnias with her loathing of demonic entities, the Black mana generated in enough force this time to almost equal his White, tendrils of shadow wrapping around the right side of his body

The boy ran shining energy through his Lucerna birthmark, grinning in satisfaction when once again it became an orb of pure tenebrosity. He tossed it into the air, pouring both types of mana into the sphere of abyssal un-light, and as it expanded the simultaneously familiar and unknown choir of his lonely mind-cathedral filled the air. Alexander watched in fascination at the kid's actions, proud of how the younger boy wielded Black mana with such skill despite it being inimical to most Lucaelians – despite the evil nature of the magic, he felt no sinister intent from his brother, no threat directly towards him, just an unadulterated detestation targeted at their new foe.

Just as the haunting hymnals were beginning to eclipse all other noise and the luminosity of the Black Sun rose to gargantuan levels, a burst of much more corrupt Black mana released from Ershun's carriage. Whilst Caiellis was finishing his own Summoning, etching the symbols of Orzhova's scythe in the air with the thrumming Sword of Glass as yet more mana pulsed around him, so too was a bloated figure emerging from a dark portal that ripped open reality and plunged the street into malevolent blackness.

Finally, two immensely powerful Sancturia beings stepped into the world to join Aurelia, the first being Orzhova, the Angel of the Black Sun, who smiled down at her Summoner. The second was a huge demon with a distended stomach of corpulent grey flesh, kept aloft by the beating of malicious bat-shaped wings. Golden and opulent sigils decorated the black skin, rising up from the swollen abdomen and framing its muscled pectorals, bracers of the same ostentatious material encircling its large forearms, as massive clawed hands extended from tree-trunk wrists. Wisps of indulgent purple light floated around the demon, promising eternal delight in the form of endless banquets, majestic golden horns curling up from the creature's head reflecting the blasphemous glow. The most terrifying feature of the personification of Gluttony were its small eyes that twinkled with a decadent gleam that couldn't quite conceal ravenous, uncontrollable hunger.

"So nice to see you again, sister," Orzhova smiled mockingly, as Aurelia shot a glare of smouldering aversion that clearly showcased the First Sisterhood's detestation of the dark angel. A wet, rumbling laugh erupted from the demon, and both angels turned their hatred-filled gazes upon it as it guffawed, the disturbing noise brimming with false mirth.

"Two little seraphim of the First Sisterhood?" it chuckled in baleful incredulity, his eyes filling with primal hunger and lust as they took in the beautiful angels. "My my, I am flattered. You would make fine guests at the Everlasting Banquet, if you just ignored the instructions of these pathetic princelings and joined me."

"Are you honestly that stupid, demon scum, or is food all you can think about?" Orzhova snarled back, opening her ebony wings to their fullest extent as twin contrails of White and Black whirled around her golden scythe as she spun it languidly. "That disgusting offer of yours didn't even entice me, a much more individual angel than my boring sisters, so Serra knows what effect it had on puritanical Aurelia."

"Orzhova," the fiery Warleader growled impatiently, evidently less interesting in verbally sparring than her heavenly sibling, "Do not invoke the founding mother's name in vain."

"Boo-hoo, I broke one of your ridiculous rules. What a shame," the Angel of the Black Sun feigned an over-exaggerated gasp and smirked petulantly at her sister, who looked as if she was about to retort angrily.

"Ladies please, can we stop our bickering and focus on the more pressing issue of a Greater demon?" Alexander flashed a charming smile at his own Summoning and then at Orzhova, who snorted and grinned back. "Isn't your big brother just charming, Caiellis? I like him," she laughed.

Caiellis wasn't listening. In fact, the boy was no longer stood in his former position. Alex gulped in shock as his brother leapt into the air, wings of stained glass reflecting the colours of light and darkness augmenting his ascent, and swooping down at the demon, who up until now had looked thoroughly bored. He opened his palm and a rotting mass of bloated limbs vomited out from a rift in reality, slowing down the prince as he swung his shining artefact blade in a sideways arc, annihilating the obstructions and pressing on at the demon.

Ershun then fired out a bolt of flame, the Master of Gluttony obviously able to utilise the Red mana of Welkas as well as his demonic Black magic. A shield of singing energy appeared in front of the boy, as Orzhova flew alongside him and elevating his already prodigious magical strength.

Despite only fighting together once before, the two shared a bond of teamwork that matched the one Alex had with Aurelia. The demon growled in frustration as Orzhova swung her large scythe into him, swiftly dodging his counterstrike and dragging her blade along its flesh, purple blood leaking out. A chain of debilitating shadow wrapped itself around Caiellis's thin leg, and Ershun pulled on it, sending the boy tumbling to the ground. His palanquin bearers watched impassively as the Master's dark magic was met by a force of equal intensity, Cai's own Black mana bolstered by the opposite energy of his White, their strange harmony smashing through Ershun's combined Red and Black.

Determined not to be outdone, Alex conjured up his sun-hammer from earlier and charged at the bulbous denizen of Sancturia darkness, his battle cries in unison with Aurelia screaming war-shout. Orzhova gasped as thousands of tiny beetles began to swarming out of the Master of Gluttony's Summoning, buzzing over to her in a surge of malignant chitin. A ball of purifying silver flames washed over the dark angel, and she grudgingly nodded her thanks to Aurelia, who had ignited her twin swords and was carving into the demon.

The beast roared in anger and spread its wings, occult sigils forming out of its malevolent desire wisps and two simultaneous portals into the nether opening wide. The gaping maws then vomited out a tsunami of some vile substance that looked disturbingly like half-digested meals, forcing the Lucaelians and their Summonings away from the demon to avoid being melted by the acidic bile. Caiellis jumped into the air, and then yelped in surprise as his wings spontaneously shattered, Ershun grinning with vindictive glee as he completed the destroying spell, the ruinous forces of Red and Black combining to obliterate the boy's enchantments. Utterly unprepared for the burst of sudden speed the demon put on, Cai felt immense pain shoot through his nerves as a large hand grabbed his waist, squeezing with crushing force and then flinging him into a nearby stall. He crashed through the wooden table, splintering it, and hit the wall with a sickening impact.

"Cai!" Alex shouted, and shot to his little brother's side, his rage at seeing the younger boy hurt and potentially mortally wounded gifting speed in the form of Red enchantments to the middle Lucerna. He skidded to a halt as his younger sibling got to his feet apparently unharmed by his collision, despite the fact that Alex had definitely heard bones snapping. Life-giving energy swirled around the smaller youth, who swayed unsteadily as Orzhova conjured an orb of darkness, using it to channel a draining ray that sucked life the enemy Summoning, who snarled in anger.

"We cannot lose," Caiellis uttered calmly, an incredibly confident grin gracing his normally shy features as he cocked his head to one side, staring straight past his older brother. Alex wondered whether the kid had hit his head and suffered a concussion, but Cai looked perfectly lucid – he couldn't actually check the boy's eyes to see if they were dazed or not as they were still suffused with alternate energies.

"Do not fear for your brother, young Alexander," Orzhova's soft voice called, "The main principle of White and Black mana is to, above all else, keep the mage healthy and draining life from foes to accomplish this. Cai might have sustained significant damage in his little tumble, but nothing a bit of extraction magic can't handle."

"Arrogant child! I am Azarklak, Lord of the Everlasting Banquet, Arch-Patriarch of Gluttony, the Father of the Feast!" the demon shouted, making the air shake with its anger as it beat its wings furiously. "I will show you the meaning of true pain!"

It clasped its hands together, a storm of violent magic conjured around it. Ershun wailed in panic as his palanquin bearers suddenly collapsed in the presence of the spell, their minds not capable of withstanding the pressure and dropping the carriage.

"Empty threats will get you nowhere, Azarklak," Orzhova tutted admonishingly.

"Enough with words. Let us end this," Aurelia declared, letting go of her swords and animating them, the flame-wreathed blades orbiting around her as she channelled White and Red mana into her palms.

"Hurry up and kill them!" the Master of Gluttony shrieked in sheer panic as he sensed the fiery angel's mana levels rising to obscene levels, crawling out of his downed palanquin and beginning to drag his morbidly obese body away from the battle. Orzhova also began a spell of her own, as alternating circles of tenebrosity and light expanded out from her black wings. Both brothers added their power to their Summonings, and eventually it became then pitted against the magic of the Lord of the Everlasting Banquet.

In the end, there was no way that the demon could win. The might of two First Sisterhood angels was far too powerful for it to handle, and although Azarklak hand acquitted itself favourably Caiellis had been right: there was no way that they could lose.

A release of immensely potent corrupting energy was matched, and then overcome, by a wall of purifying flame that Aurelia summoned, bolstered with crackling purple lightning gifted by Orzhova. The Angel of the Black Sun had sensed that her sister was preparing one of her finishing moves, Aurelia's Fury, and as such wouldn't have to use much more of Caiellis's mana in completing the Culling Sun or some other such ritual that would leave the poor boy unnecessarily exhausted – Caiellis would most probably be tired enough without that.

Azarklak bellowed in impotent fury as his magic was burnt by the purifying flames, screaming in anger as he was incinerated and forced back into Sancturia. Ershun yelled in agony as his Summoning was forcefully annihilated, whimpering in pain and trying desperately to move his bloated body away from the vengeful angels. A sea of pleas babbled from his mouth as the ominous figure of Orzhova landed next to him, but they were ignored as her golden scythe swept down into him.

* * *

><p>Summonings in this chapter:<p>

Order of Rapture mage: Vexing Devil

Order of Violence mage: Spawn of Rix Maadi

Ershun Firefist: Master of the Feast


	14. The Succubus Strikes

Orzhova elegantly flicked the blood from her scythe, the bisected corpse of the Master of Gluttony falling apart underneath the dark angel. She slammed her heel in the ground, a mixture of White and Black mana rushing out of it and erasing the upper and lower half of Ershun. Aurelia stood still for a brief moment in the silence of the aftermath, the only sounds the heavy breathing of each prince, and then rounded on her sister, grabbing the other angel by the shoulder and spinning her around. The Warleader's angelic features were twisted in calamitous fury, but instead of looking scared Orzhova grinned mockingly at her sibling.

"Orzhova! Where have you been in the past one-hundred years? Why have you chosen now to select another Summoner?!" Aurelia demanded, her eyes blazing, and shook the Angel of the Black Sun for effect.

"Serra exiled me from the Sanctum Angelica after my "crimes" in the material plane under Xarius, or do you not remember, dear_ sister_?" Orzhova spat the words, sending Aurelia a look of pure hatred that made the angel blink in hesitation for a split second. "And my reasons are my own. Caiellis was a suitable Summoner, so I chose him before any of your sisters could intervene."

"Orzhova..." Aurelia's words fell short, a very human action for one so mighty, "They are your sisters too."

"You know full well that there is nothing between me and them, nothing between you and I," the dark seraph pulled away from Aurelia, and as Cai reached her side he could clearly see the deep sadness in her onyx eyes as she turned. "I'm sick of talking to you. Goodbye."

A wave of exhaustion threatened to overcome the youngest Lucerna as Orzhova returned inside of him, and Aurelia cast him a sympathetic glance before admitting, "Alexander, I have used up enough of your mana. I shall leave before I consume anymore. Summon me when you need me."

"Thank you," Alex replied, squeezing his brother's shoulder with a large palm as his angel also dissipated into golden particles. He surveyed the scene of destruction they had caused in their battle with the Master of Gluttony, vibrant stalls, scorched by Aurelia's Fury, lay strewn across the wide street, and Alex was extremely thankful that there had been no innocent Welkalite civilians in the area. Neither of them needed that on their consciences.

"You did good, little man," Alex grinned proudly at his younger brother, placing his arm around the other boy's back and walking with him to the other side of the Banquet Street. They were almost out of the city, but Alexander was worried about how tired they both were – walking for days on end back to Lucael and Civitas Sol wouldn't be ideal.

"Don't worry. I'm sure the Resistance will have something planned in the way of transport," Cai's soft and thoughtful voice broke the silence that had descended between them, and the older brother nodded. "Actually, I probably shouldn't be so confident. If their whole plan has anything in common with Degan's time management, then we will probably end up back in Tradax's clutches."

"Wow, you are mean. Did you not want to see your friend? You didn't even say anything to him," Alex sighed, knowing full well that his little brother was bad at socialising with most others and pushed them away, but when he had seen the two boys together at the Scholaria Caiellis looked like he was bonding with the fifteen year old Kaled. Apparently not, though he was aware how obstinate the little guy was when interacting with children of a similar age, often ignoring them.

"I never said he was my friend. It was only circumstance that brought us together," Cai replied, twirling his sword and sheathing it with an elegant flourish that made Alex stifle a smirk. Sometimes Caiellis trying to act as an adult was more funny than anything else, though his little brother would always get really annoyed if he pointed it out.

"You shouldn't push people away, Cai. Kaled clearly wanted to be friends with you," Alex's soft tone took on one of slight admonition, a voice he often used when he was trying to teach the younger boy more about the world. "Besides, you can't hang around me all the time. We are princes, and I'll soon be an adult."

"That's not true. You're the one who always wants to talk to me," Cai responded sulkily, running past his brother and glancing round the corner to ensure it was clear. However, the path towards the gateway out of the city was empty, bereft of brightly coloured Gluttony Enforcers. Had the Welkalites really thought that Ershun alone could stop them? It smacked of arrogance, and although Tradax was wont to preening Caiellis had realised that the Master of Rapture was deeply cunning, and it was unlike him to not have a back up plan in case Ershun failed. And despite how organised the Ja'an Guard was, Cai couldn't help but think they would be able to delay the entire Usnaan military alone. _What am I missing?_ He thought, trying to play the details of the past couple of days in his head.

"Yeah, and I found out that you were cutting yourself, so obviously what I did was right," Alexander quickly overtook his smaller sibling and scanned the area for enemies, in spite of the fact that Cai had just done so – he could tell that the younger boy was thinking hard about something, and when he had done that in the past sometimes he had failed to notice foes. The most prominent time he remembered was when Cai stormed off after Tristram had given Alex a black eye (that he felt he thoroughly deserved) in an unarmed combat training session, and apparently hadn't noticed Johnias's soldiers ambushing him before Tristram saved him. Although that turned out well, with the littlest Lucerna remaining unharmed and discovering new-found respect for the Guardian, Alex wanted to make sure the area was indeed clear before they carried on.

"Whatever."

"Don't deny that I'm an awesome big brother," Alex joked, playfully ruffling his unamused brother's hair and then narrowing his eyes. A figure clothed in black leather armour with a red glove covering their right hand was beckoning them over to the gate, a strange looking wheeled-capsule behind them. The Welkalite held a curved scimitar that was covered with blood and ash, going a way towards explaining the absence of guards.

"Messa?" he shouted, recognising the hard faced Resistance Enforcer as they ran closer, and the woman stood beneath the ostentatious triumphal arch of Gateway Gluttony nodded quickly, turning round to adjust some dials on the machine behind her. Alex swiftly arrived at the open gate, waiting a moment for his panting brother to catch up. The younger boy was tired, a fact made painfully obvious by his heavy breathing. Well, they were both drained, but Alex certainly wasn't going to let Caiellis realise that – he reminded himself that his brother had only Summoned Orzhova once before today, whereas he had Summoned Aurelia over a hundred times.

"Get in," the woman ordered, roughly dragging the weightless Cai towards the vehicle, and Alex would have objected to the harsh treatment of the kid if time was not of the essence. Caiellis examined the locomotive as he was shoved inside, turning to Messa with an incredulous glance.

"A Yentarian automobile? I thought they were Uverian, and those scientists normally don't approve of sharing their technology. How did you obtain it?" he inquired, monumentally glad that the Resistance had acquired such a state of the art vehicle for their escape. This would get them back to the City of the Sun within a day at most.

"Let's just say that it would not be in the best interests of the League of Uveria for you to remain here," the woman replied, her face as inscrutable as stone. Knowing he would get no more out of her, he slid along the comfortably padded seats to allow his much larger brother to get in also. The second Alex did so, a wave of claustrophobia that made him want to get out was ruthlessly quashed; small spaces may not be his favourite place to be but he would suck it up as the automobile was the brothers' only way of realistically escaping. It wasn't like he was extremely claustrophobic, far from it, but Alexander couldn't help but wonder how they were supposed to defend themselves stuck in the car.

"I have already set the co-ordinates for Civitas Sol," Messa cut in, and Cai quickly noticed the control panel set in front of them – he already knew that the mana infused into the automobile would allow it to direct itself and automatically take them to the aforementioned city, where no doubt their anguished father would be massing an army to take them back, but he could manually override it with magic if necessary – Caiellis hoped that he didn't have to, as reading about the properties of the invention in treaties published by the Yentarian scientists certainly wasn't a substitute for first hand experience, of which either boy had none. The only modern transport Lucaelians used were the monorails, preferring to either move on foot, on horseback or with magic of some kind, so Cai doubted his big brother even knew what the vehicle was considering the older boy didn't read nearly as much as he did, if at all.

"Activate it by-" Messa began, just as the youngest prince called mana to his small fingertips and tapped the holographic display, starting up the vehicle. "Well, it seems you already know what you are doing. Remember your promise to the Resistance, Alexander and Caiellis Lucerna. You will help to free Welkas from the Orders of Passion. There is no way we can force you to, but I hope your consciences are enough to force your hand."

"That, and the fact that our father will definitely declare war if he hasn't done so already," Cai replied glumly, to which Alexander added: "Thank you. The Resistance has done a great service to Lucael. Let it not be said that the Kingdom of Light forgets its allies."

The confident words prompted Caiellis to recall their lessons on proper speaking with Uncle Tybalt; while the older boy may have found what he just said cringe-worthy (as he had stated previously on numerous occasions), the line was textbook perfect. Neither of them had particularly struggled with the teaching, but since Cai's brother was far more confident and amiable than the younger boy, so was better placed to talk to people. Not many people gave credit to the older boy for his intelligence in using words, though Cai himself had only realised a few years ago when pondering just how his older brother always knew what to say to him to either exceedingly irritate or please him.

Messa quickly retreated from the vehicle when its small but very effective engines powered up, the mana supplied to it from batteries and Caiellis gave ample propulsion. Alex looked through the reinforced glass at the front of the automobile, watching as the Yentarian invention shot through Gateway Gluttony and into the suburbs surrounding the main city, the main dwelling place of civilians in Welkas. He glanced round at the deserted poverty, obviously those that lived here were inside their homes. According to Tradax, whom he had asked about Welkalite society at the breakfast of today's morning, the Master of Rapture had explained that while most of the population did live within the cities, in the unnamed habitable areas in between each Passion Quarter, there were some who resided outside of the capital city. However, it seemed like either they had been evacuated or were hidden within their homes.

Alex ensured that he examined each building they drove past for potential ambushers, feeling a queasy sensation building up in his gut at the thought of being attacked while stuck inside the automobile. Sensing his brother's disquiet, Cai piped up and said: "Don't worry, Alex. The Uverian scientists designed these vehicles to be resistant to both physical and magical attacks, giving us enough time to get out." he smiled comfortingly, placing a small but reassuring hand on his sibling's forearm. "Besides, I can always manually override the automobile if the situation becomes that dangerous."

"You can drive this?" Alexander asked, a quizzical expression on his face. Cai grinned wryly, which wasn't particularly encouraging, and replied: "Well, I technically know the method for piloting it, but obviously I've never had real world experience."

"Fantastic," the older boy sarcastically muttered, and Caiellis pouted. "Hey, I don't see you knowing how to operate it. At least I know vaguely what to do, you wouldn't even be able to explain how it worked!"

"No need to get offended, little brother," Alex held up his hands, and although he had reacted satirically he was secretly glad the boy had some knowledge of their salvation's mechanisms. "Anyway, I'm not Boy Genius, so you shouldn't expect me to know anything. Give me a good fight over complex formulae any day."

.*.*.*.

Aksua leapt high across the tiered balconies of the huge Towers of Ecstasy, the glittering monuments to self-gratification and obscene wealth shining in the brightness of the Welkalite sun – unlike the hated Lucaelian light that came from Sancturia itself instead of the natural illumination of other countries, the vampire did not have an adverse reaction to it. The sun conveyed none of the abhorred White mana that made Aksua's skin burn and revealed her true age, and the Lucaelian darted with supernatural swiftness from tower to tower.

The buildings were playgrounds for the rich, formerly belonging to the Augur's Quarter but now on the border between that and Tradax's Hedonist's Quarter. The man had kept their original function, since the Orders of Rapture and Wealth often overlapped, and now the nobles of the city spent huge amounts of time in the three towers.

Though the reason why Aksua had been released was still a mystery, the vampire had been able to ascertain that several unexpected combats were taking place throughout Usnaan, although now they were beginning to die down as the dissidents slunk away in the wake of a full scale mobilization of all Enforcer forces. Evidently Tradax's narcissism had prevented the man from noticing the growing resentment of the population – were these Welkalites doomed to repeating history, defeating their oppressors before becoming tyrants themselves, and then in turn being deposed by the next budding regime. Even though Aksua detested Lucaelian society, it was far more reliable and advanced than this. Whatever. The vampire couldn't care less about the Empire of Passion, it was just a means to an end for her to recover. The fact that said recovery had taken far longer than expected wasn't much of a bother for a functionally immortal being, and now that she was free Aksua could do as she pleased.

Only a few minutes ago, a gargantuan rise in mana levels near where she had detected her prey, the Lucerna princes, made her hesitant to continue on her current path – if they were really that powerful, was it wise to hunt them? However, this rise in magical energy from the younger boy made her want to feed on them even more, the burning temptation in the back of her skull unconquerable. This was amplified even more when they defeated the demon she had bound to Ershun Firefist; the Lord of the Everlasting Banquet had been intensely displeased when it was Summoned through the Internal Bargain, but Aksua knew she had nothing to fear from Azarklak, who would lick his wounds and then return to his eternal feast with Ershun's soul a new dish on the menu.

She had sensed distinctly then that the massive amounts of Black mana being emitted were not just from the Master of the Feast, and a shudder went down her spine as she clearly identified the presence of the terrifying Angel of the Black Sun, a seraph made up of equal parts light and darkness that Aksua remembered from when Emperor Xarius had visited Kalitas's dwellings in the outer abyss, angry that the vampirical ruler had not aided him prior to this in the war against his niece. The angel had stared at them, full of disgust, and Aksua recalled Xarius ordering her to butcher several helpless vampire nobles to "restore the loyalty of the vampire clans", which she did so without comment, inspiring awe and primal terror from onlookers, utterly unlike any angel Aksua had ever encountered before and after the incident.

Despite the fact that Lucaelians hated Xarius, he was one of the most powerful rulers ever to ascend to the Lucerna throne, and would have been a delight to feast upon. However, what the vampire sensed from young Caiellis was even more enticing – before, the angel had been full of Xarius's darkness, using exclusively Black mana to prosecute the king's nefarious wishes. Now the White and Black were both present in the dark angel, and while a balance had not yet been achieved he would become far more formidable than the late Emperor of Light. Aksua could not even imagine how delectable a Lucerna would be to feast upon, and so could only begin to think of the heights of bliss she would reach when draining the youngest son of Marik. That must have been what he meant when he had said they already had enough darkness on their side.

The vampire had already fed on this day, exsanguinating several parties of Enforcers, and now she was in the process of causing enough disruption to allow herself and the princes to escape unimpeded – Aksua was hoping that if she brutally slaughtered the guards, dismembering or obliterating their bodies instead of leaving bloodless husks, then the Welkalites would just assume it was the doing of the rebels that called themselves the Resistance. She had found that information out when she had murdered a group numbering five of them, who had thought she was a corrupt Welkalite mage of some sort.

"Sir, it seems that the Resistance has stopped their attacks," a condescending voice, enhanced by the vampire's post-human auditory functions, floated up to Aksua on her golden vantage point. She listened intently, focussing in on the sound, hearing the pumping heartbeat of the soldiers of the Augur's Quarter far below – judging by the sluggish rate, the Enforcer hadn't participated in any fighting yet. She was going to change that, though she doubted what would come next could be called a fight. More like a culling.

"Indeed. Those cowards are obviously afraid to fight us in a proper battle," the man that the soldier had been addressing, probably a leader of some form, spat, and Aksua could visualise his conceited sneer. She quickly descended the Tower of Ecstasy, her preternatural agility making navigating the sheer drop child's play. She could hear the enforcers conversing triumphantly amongst themselves, like they had actually accomplished something in this battle. Shadows wrapped around Aksua as she silently called Nocturon to her side, the umbral horror blending seamlessly into her slender form, tendrils of wriggling darkness shooting off from behind her as she began to run at a vertical slant down golden tower.

"Three cheers for the New Empire!" one man shouted, and the other Enforcers began laughing and agreeing, and the leader chuckled and declared.

"Hooray!" he bellowed, the arrogance in his tone thick and making Aksua want to kill him even more. She loved to murder those that thought themselves influential, proving their folly before draining them of life.

"Hooray!" the Enforcers cried in unison, the ridiculousness of their celebration not lost on the vampire. She could see them now, her supernatural vision allowing her to perceive the extravagant and pristine golden armour of the soldiers guarding the untargeted Augur's Quarter – there were two types of Enforcer in the Order of Wealth, while black-glad and sadistic Collectors enforced the brutal taxes upon the oppressed, shining Custodians defended the vast, glittering vaults of the Order. Aksua remembered them being a formidable and disciplined army under the command of Gretia, the only Master that she had exempted from her Infernal Bargains, but evidently these were the recruits Tradax had gathered after he exterminated the former Custodians. She leapt off the wall, landing softly on an expanding mass of shade in the shadow of the tower, out of sight of the Enforcer group.

"Hooray!" they chanted for the final time, and Aksua briefly Unsummoned Nocturon before striding confidently out of the shadows, preparing her best flirtatious smile.

"Ooh, how lucky I am, to come upon a group of the Empire's bravest soldiers after the crushing defeat of the Resistance," she purred, tossing her hair to one side and feasting on the stares of undisguised lust the Enforcers gave her. She paraded her attractive body in front of them, watching as their eyes followed her, like a pack of pups desperately wishing for their mother to notice and feed them.

"It is certainly a time for celebration," the leader agreed, his brown eyes full of atavistic craving, and Aksua noticed how the other soldiers glared pettily at his back as he stepped forwards towards what he must have assumed was a Rapture slut. He made to embrace her and she leaned into his grasp, hearing his heartbeat rise in response to the all-consuming desire he felt. Aksua responded with an unexpected strength, her long hands wrapping around his resplendent gauntlets and crushing with huge force, pushing them to his side as she inched her head towards his. Aksua licked her lips as she saw the desire in the man's irises quickly turn to panic as she began a kiss on his neck, before uncovering her sharpened fangs and burying them in his jugular. The man gurgled as his breathing was impaired, and his soldiers dutifully ran forwards, shouting battle cries.

The coils of darkness that represented Nocturon suddenly reappeared, shooting out of her and wrapping around the other Enforcers, restricting their movements as they screamed in agony. Aksua clamped down harder, a spray of arterial blood jetting out from the wound as she drunk greedily, but there was nothing special to the meal. She sighed disappointedly and tossed the barely exsanguinated corpse away from her, the Custodian's features twisted in a rictus of pain. It crashed into the golden walls, blood still spraying from the body's throat and painting the ostentatious material a deep crimson.

The vampire raised her fist and squeezed it shut, the tendrils of abyssal gloom the Enforcers were trying to fight off contracting with unstoppable power, eviscerating the Custodians as their armour was no protection against Black mana. When Aksua had first been converted, she had been taught to savour every meal and would have baulked at how wasteful she was now being, but the current Aksua knew now that it was quality, not quantity, that mattered most.

_Speaking of quality,_ she thought, as her mind sensed a sharp decrease in mana levels in the Glutton's Quarter, meaning that the princes had ceased their Summonings of First Sisterhood angels. Aksua detected them moving away through Gate Gluttony and into the outer city at an incredible rate, which meant they had some form of transport. She concentrated on the other mana signatures of predominantly Red spreading out through the city and in the princes' direction, and the vampire resolved to eliminate them first so that she would have no interruptions in her feast. Besides, even with transport it wasn't like the Lucernas could outrun a demoniacally gifted vampire.

.*.*.*.

It was dark, though the chronometer on the automobile still insisted it was well within the daytime hours. _Great to see that Lucael welcomes us back with its endless night,_ Caiellis thought bitterly, as the vehicle shot through the dark of the outer kingdom. It had just happened, one moment it was perfectly sunny and the next twilight had descended, marking their entrance into the Kingdom of Light, like a sudden curtain of midnight onyx had been drawn across the sky. This was arguably the least dangerous part of the abyss, as it was relatively close to both Civitas Sol and Welkas, though still acted as a natural barrier preventing the two nations from interacting much, though Cai still assumed his father would gladly march an army through it to lay siege to the New Empire in order to retrieve his heirs.

Alex dozed next to him, taking the moment of respite to recuperate after Caiellis had informed his older brother that he wasn't in the mood for a conversation, which the younger boy now thought was a bit harsh. He knew that the veil of sleep his friend wore was only temporary and very thin, allowing Alex to react as soon as he sensed danger while giving his mind time to rest.

Cai's thin fingers ghosted over the holographic representation of alternative schematic designs for the automobile that other Uverian inventors had suggested, though his brain had long since stopped actively recording the complex explanations and utterly uninteresting experiment notes. All Yentarian vehicles had a mana source that allowed the user to access several databases, and at first the thirteen year old had thought it would be a good idea, but was swiftly coming to the conclusion that his mind wanted him to think about something else: how easy the escape had been.

Sure, they had been challenged by a Master, one of the most daunting judging by his prestigious status, and they did have the ability to wield two First Sisterhood angels, but it didn't seem like Tradax to let the flee so easily. The Master of Rapture had taken a massive risk in abducting Lucerna monarchy, rousing the entirety of Lucael to righteous outrage and mobilizing the formidable army into action. The Old Empire had always been far more careful, staying far away from the Kingdom of Light as it expanded, obliterating other nations that challenged its dominance as each Lucernan ruler used their angelic power to claim more and more territory, annihilating more and more other factions and grinding them to dust under the blessings of the Sisterhoods.

The only war Lucael had ever "lost" (though the official records still maintained that it was only due to the foolishness of the king and that now the Lucaelian military could destroy the Erians) was King Acarn's attempted expansion into the forests of the Erian Conclave in the year 823, where the glittering legions were completely outmatched by the environment, ambushed by huge predators and forces of Erian tribesmen, utterly outsmarted by the shamans who used their knowledge of the forest to decimated the army. They had attacked the king himself with titanic manifestations of Green mana that had swept aside Feather and crushed the man to a bloody pulp.

What was focused on more however what came after Acarn's untimely death – the Erians swarmed out their forest to muster and take advantage of the Lucaelian's disaster by taking over territory outside the forest, and while the Hierarch of the time organised the retreat the late king's younger sister, the famed Queen Arie, arguably the second most successful monarch of Lucael that Caiellis had inherited his own artefact blade from, managed to hold off the entire Erian army with only Jenara, her tricolour Summoning for assistance. She annihilated the enemy army, and when the shamans realised that there was no way they could possibly win against her they brokered a treaty that still stood – the Erians and Lucaelians would leave each other alone, and traders from each would be allowed in Lucael and Geansse, the only Erian city. Cai and Alexander, when one of them became king, had a huge range of successful and heroic ancestors to take inspiration from.

_Dammit! Concentrate you idiot! _Caiellis harshly chastised himself for letting his mind wander to the vast amounts of information he had absorbed when he had methodologically read the large majority of history books in different libraries around the kingdom. _Right, back to Tradax and the escape please._

The fact that the Master of Rapture had willingly angered a nation famed for its prosecution of warfare and massive range of military victories suggested that Tradax must have had monumental plans in store for the princes, which made Cai doubt that the man would let them go without diverting large numbers of Welkalite Enforcers to stop them. Yes, the Resistance may have delayed and distracted some of them, but that didn't account for most of them. What was he missing?!

Cai sighed, analysing the data he knew over and over again as the hologram automatically shut off with a quiet whoosh due to the lack of use. He rubbed his eyes, tired, and his gaze landed on his older brother. Maybe he should ask Alex, it wasn't as if the older boy was stupid and wouldn't object to being woken if Caiellis wanted his advice. Even so, the littlest Lucerna didn't want to deprive his sibling of sleep after the seventeen year old had Summoned Aurelia for a prolonged period of time and utilised a spell of a very large mana requirement.

"I know that I am incredibly handsome and charming, but you don't have to stare little brother," Alex teased good-naturedly, causing Cai to rock back in surprise, his cheeks coloured with a slight tinge of cherry. He hadn't realised his brother had awoken. Alex laughed and punched his brother in the arm, eliciting a familiar scowl from the prince that the kid wore whenever Alexander did that. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

Stunned for a second, Cai's features twisted in incredulity which made his senior laugh even harder. "Don't look so surprised, buddy. You sometimes seem to forget that I've known you all your life. You used to pull the same "deep-thought" expression when you were as young as two, and I'm well used to the "I-want-to-ask-my-big-brother-about-this-but-don't-want-to-disturb-him-in-case-he-kicks-my-skinny-ass" look you have at the moment, so don't try and pretend that you don't want to talk or I will have to force you to," Alex grinned charmingly at his sibling, who folded his arms and turned away from the older boy. "Trust me little guy, I don't want to have to tickle you into submission, but if necessary I will evoke my right as a big brother to do so. Now talk."

"It's about the relative ease of our escape," Caiellis turned back around, looking into the bright blue eyes of his older brother, who snorted. "You're the only one calling it easy, squirt," he exaggeratedly raised his hands when the boy shot him an irritated glower, which Alex couldn't help but think it made his little brother that much cuter.

"Note that I used the word "relative". I'm not saying it was effortless, far from it, I just would have thought that Tradax would have used more resources to prevent our breakout. I know the Resistance was diverting their attention elsewhere, but they took a massive gamble taking us to Usnaan, so I just thought Tradax would have more countermeasures than a few squads of Enforcers and the Master of Gluttony," Cai explained, watching as Alex contemplated the words, mulling them over in his mind. Caiellis was expecting good advice, and it was Alexander's duty as an elder sibling to deliver, so he took his time considering the ideas presented. True, maybe the escape was easier than he might have thought, but that wasn't necessarily a cause for concern as they had already reached Lucael and were only a few kilometres away from Civitas Sol, so if Tradax had sent any pursuers it would be unlikely that they could recapture the brothers. Alex came to his conclusion, realising that his little brother wouldn't like it but both knew that the most simple explanation was often correct.

"Cai, you're not going to like my answer, but here it is: I think you are worrying too much," he said simply, waiting for that well known annoyed frown to appear before elaborating, "You are delving too far into the world of "what-ifs" and "buts" without considering what is plainly obvious – we have escaped from Welkas with the Resistance's help, and the measures Tradax placed to stop us – including a powerful demon and rare mana inhibitors – weren't enough. Maybe he hadn't even thought of us breaking out of them, so wasn't even expecting us to be able to Summon."

Cai nodded slowly, seeing sense in his brother's words. In truth, he had forgotten about the inhibitors in the heat of the retreat, and now that the older brought them up the comparative ease of their escape seemed much more logical. Trust Alex to be able to provide an alternative and objective viewpoint, one that was much more obvious and rational than his own mental ramblings. Alex could see how his brother was grateful for his point of view, and grinned proudly at the younger boy.

"Thanks, Alex," he murmured thankfully, his green eyes full of appreciation for his big brother's advice and the older boy prodded him in the forehead.

"No problem shortie. Sometimes that brain of yours is too smart for its own good," the seventeen year old patted the boy's head affectionately, smirking when Cai narrowed his eyes and glared back.

"Or maybe your little brother is onto something," a coquettish voice lanced into the automobile, the familiar sing-song tone belieing the malignant intent poured into the words. Both boys instantly reacting by channelling their mana, crackling and incandescent White humming through the air as the brothers prepared to react to their pursuer(s). A pale face, perfect in every dimension and insanely attractive, suddenly appeared out of the gloom, grinning down at the boys through the circular windscreen.

Alex shouted in sudden panic and tried to yank his weightless brother with him through the automobile door as he felt it being lifted from the ground, the mana-engines whining at the disturbance. He managed to pull Cai out into the freezing darkness of Lucael just as the car was tossed casually across a large distance, flipping in the air like the discarded toy of a petulant giant and crashing into a nearby building. The engines detonated in a high-pitched squeal of released energy, and both Lucernas covered their eyes from the intense glare of the blue light.

As the explosion died down and hissing flames began to consume the wreckage of the car and the small and archaic stone hut it had smashed into, the wan crimson/orange light illuminated a tall figure. Alex baulked in recognition as his eyes landed on the unmistakeable form of their attacker – the shapely hips, impeccable milky skin, the flawless brown hair that cascaded down her back, and the eyes, those beautiful eyes, that promised eternal love and a perpetuity of pleasure.

Somehow, Aksua had escaped from her cell and found them.

* * *

><p>New Summonings in this chapter:<p>

Aksua: Abyssal Nocturnus


	15. Sweet Dreams

"Hello again boys," the vampire licked her lips in expectation of the coming meal, while both exhausted princes glared defiantly back, their determined eyes reflecting the flames of the burning automobile and locking with the amused orbs of Aksua. She smiled indulgently as the gloomy morass of wriggling tendrils behind her, only visible because of the flame-lit illumination brightening everything else in the eternal night, started moving even more spasmodically.

Cai was the first to react, augmenting his agility and speed with the favoured glittering stained glass wings he had utilised before and somersaulting into the air, the Sword of Glass in his right hand arcing through the darkness, the edge of tenebrosity slicing towards Aksua. He knew that although White mana should be more effective against creatures of the abyss, a vampire was still technically living and human (though very far removed), so maybe Black mana could be just as lethal – however he had no points of reference to base this assumption upon, as knowledge of the magic of the shadows was very limited in Lucael.

Aksua dodged his first shining swipe and pirouetted back from the second, tutting disapprovingly at the young boy as he tried to keep up with her vampiric speed augmented by Nocturon – now that she was out of the Welkalite sunlight and back in the darkness of her homeland, her demonic gifts were far more powerful. Tendrils of gloom shot out from the horror behind her, shooting after the airborne prince and bouncing off a shield of defensive holy energy he created quickly. The woman smiled and leapt at him, just as bolts of flame impacted into her side. She grimaced at the burning sensation and swiftly shot towards Caiellis, her smallest opponent yelping at the sudden burst of speed she put on as she barrelled into him, sending them both tumbling and preventing Alex from getting a clear shot with his Red mana with the risk of hitting his precious little brother.

"Cai!" the older boy shouted, looking desperately within himself and realising that he had no-where near enough mana to re-Summon Aurelia. Their battle with Ershun and his demonic Arch-Patriarch of Gluttony had enervated him more than he had let on, but he still needed to be there for Caiellis and ran after the two battling figures, severely hoping that the kid would still be alright as him and Aksua were about to land in a different part of the long-abandoned village.

The younger boy managed to twist through the air and launched a series of measured strikes at the vampire, who was forced to sway out of the way to avoid being impaled - the child's artefact weapon, energised with the twin conflicting forces of light and darkness, probably wouldn't kill her outright but it would cause significant damage. Cai reactivated his wings, leaping away from the vampire and landing a few metres away. He shot out a lance of pure radiance at Aksua, who opened her palms as a wave of billowing murk undulated out from them, impacting on the protective enchantments Cai conjured.

He gritted his teeth as the wave intesified, he couldn't see anything past the darkness wrapping around his small refuge of safe light, and knowing that the Lens of Guilt would be useless in this instance, as it too would be blocked by the miasma that threatened to break through his shield. Caiellis quickly activated the Lens of Innocence instead, his vision piercing through the murk a lighting everything in gold. He couldn't see Aksua with this vision, but could clearly view Alexander rushing towards what must have been the position of the vampiress, a large and heavy hammer held aloft by his stronger brother. But angels, he needed to hurry up. The pulsing dark was threatening to overwhelm his defences, the magic smashing through his enchantments one after the other like they were thin sheets of glass. Cai deactivated Innocence, focussing all of his energy on maintaining the sphere of safety that was becoming smaller every second. The boy's small fingers gripped the handle of his relic blade, and he squeezed his eyes shut against the pressure, wishing that he was fighting at full power, and shouted as the Black mana shattering the bubble he had conjured and crashing into him.

Caiellis felt himself being lifted into the air as the dark energy coalesced into a more solid form, flinging his weightless form across the empty streets of the deserted village, his sword clattering to the ground a few feet away.

Aksua had to mentally restrain the sometimes disobedient Nocturon to prevent the abyssal horror from murdering or significantly injuring the child, as that would irrevocably reduce the quality of the meal – she needed him alive, healthy but still subdued to feast upon. She scowled as the boy hit the floor with a painful impact, skidding along the stone ground. Cai yelped in pain as his thin left calf scraped over a jagged rock, the fragile skin sliced open by the sharp stone and pumping claret liquid onto the ground. The instant Aksua scented the rich aroma of the rich, crimson blood, her nostrils flared in anticipation and a sensation of longing filled her limbs with power.

Alex shouted a battle-cry, adrenaline pumping through his veins at the sight of his little brother being hurt, righteous anger welling up in his mind and inflating his supply of Red and White mana as he charged at Aksua. The seductress whirled around the second he was about to slam his hammer into her, and as Alex's rage-filled eyes met Aksua's alluring orbs he felt the strength sap from him. The hammer slowly fell from his grasp, dissipating into insubstantial magic particles, as the woman's eyes widened.

"Put that down, pretty boy," she purred, stepping to his side within an instant, the shadows that had been pulsing around her gone, as if they had committed a sin just by touching her. Her slender hands brushed against his, and Alex felt his heartbeat quicken as the cold flesh made contact with him, longing filling his mind and blocking out all other thoughts. Aksua's deep, hazel eyes shone with dazzling beauty, erasing the niggling sensation in the back of Alexander's mind that was screaming at him to continue his attack, and she giggled, the timbre of the laugh lulling him into complete submission. "We wouldn't want anyone to be hurt, now would we?"

Cai pushed himself up off the ground, ignoring the sharp pain coming from his left leg as more blood pumped onto the ancient and worn paving stones that constituted the pavements of the empty village. He bit back a gasp, determined to help his older brother – judging by the increase in the levels of mana coming from Aksua herself, not her shadowy Summoning, and the way in which Alex was just stood still, not reacting to the proximity of the vampire, he was in danger of being overcome by her magic.

He let healing spells pulse through his body and ease the agony of his wounded leg, tentatively taking a step forwards to ensure that the pain was bearable – if his friend hadn't been in need of help then he wouldn't be moving the limb – and then began to sprint towards his older brother. Concern blossomed in his mind when he saw the vacant, distant look of euphoria in the boy's usually intent blue eyes. When he ran within about five metres of Aksua, a huge wall of darkness spontaneously erupted from the air in front of him, and a keening shriek split the air and making him feel like his ears were bleeding. A face appeared out of the miasma, an indescribable _thing_ that gnashed rows of bleached teeth and glared at him with three pits of unrelenting despair. Cai shut his eyes before the temptation to claw them out overcame him, and he felt the shadows begin to surround him, blocking off his path to Alexander. That wasn't going to happen, Alex was the most valued person in Caiellis's universe and if there was one thing he would do right it would be saving him.

.*.*.*.

The messenger cowered in the corner of the ostentatious throne room of the Palace of Desire, seeking to make herself look as small as possible in a futile attempt to avoid the gaze of the one sat in the throne. Tradax sat, fuming, as the woman quickly relayed what Enforcer-General Fraetus Etin had told her to say. It was technically the general's duty to inform Tradax herself, but clearly she had sent her lackey to bear the brunt of the Master of Rapture's ire considering the absurd news she was bringing. He was no longer listening to the streaming babble that was spewing from the lieutenant's lips, meaningless excuses trying to place the blame on others and spare herself from his undoubtedly coming wrath.

_So, the Resistance deactivated the mana inhibitors I placed on the princes, and caused a huge number of distractions allowing the boys to get away from the main bodies of idiotic Enforcers. Then, they murdered dear Ershun, and escaped through Gate Gluttony in a Yentarian automobile that those useless piles of shit that call themselves soldiers allowed them to smuggle into **my** city! And just to top it all off, the vampire whore Aksua has escaped from her **warded **cell and wreaked havoc in the city, slaughtering the parties of Enforcers that were pursuing the escaping princes. How did **three **people managed to triumph over the entire garrison of Usnaan? Where the fuck was that stupid bastard Arendus Draal, and what was the newly-instated Master of Wealth doing? Twiddling his thumbs and counting his coins as the city fell apart around him?_

Tradax was once again reminded of why he had been forced to seize control of first his own order of Rapture, utilising his newly-acquired demon to annihilate the imbecile, and then the entirety of Welkas itself. It was because the rest of the humans in the Empire were so fucking _useless. _It actually amazed the man how stupid his subordinates could be if left to their own devices for a while – while the Master of Rapture had taken a short trip outside the capital city to ensure that all the preparations for the ritual him and his allies had in store for the Lucaelian boys, and when he had returned all chaos had been let loose, and not the good kind of chaos.

"My-my lord?" the red-head stammered, apprehensively looking up from where she had pressed her face into the ground, and Tradax glared furiously at her for interrupting his thoughts. "May-may I leave, lord?"

"Yes, you may go," the man snarled, and the pretty lieutenant bowed her head nervously and turned around, when the Master of Rapture let out a shriek of frustrated anger, red lighting blasting forth from his hands and jolting through the woman in a violent coruscation. He giggled in vindictive glee as the lieutenant spasmed, screaming in pain as the twofold magic both amplified the agony she would feel and inflicting tremendous amounts of it – being the Master of Rapture, Tradax was one of the most proficient artisans of pain in the entire empire, inflicting insane amounts of torment with his evil magic.

The Enforcer shouted one final time as her nerves were literally incinerated, followed by the rest of her body, and Tradax scowled. He shouldn't have lashed out like that. What a waste. If he had really wanted to punish the woman, he could have tortured her for several hours and revelled in her agony, a fate reserved for those who had failed him, but thinking about it rationally it wasn't really the lieutenant's fault for the debacle, she hadn't deserved to die. Tradax knew he was just annoyed and infuriated by what he would have to do next – he would never admit it, but the thought filled him with terror.

The man pursed his lips and tried to relax his breathing and panicked thoughts before plunging into the well of Black mana in his mind, the room becoming significantly darker as he began the shadow-communion. After a few seconds, he sensed another presence, much more evil and terrifying than Tradax himself, enter the communication. He felt the being's disapproval, he could taste the hatred in the air like as on his tongue.

"Since we last spoke only yesterday, I assume this means that you have failed in your part of the plan?" the deep, demonic voice cut through the silence of the throne room, and Tradax gulped. He hadn't expected his "ally" to already be aware of his failure, though he knew the other lord of Black mana had agents scattered across Magnus-Primae so shouldn't be surprised. The malevolent voice then stated: "I take your silence as a yes."

Tradax tried to reply, to say something that could possibly direct the blame to something else, but the words died in his throat. Shadows began to coalesce into a figure stood upright in the centre of the chamber, clothed in midnight armour that shone with dark purity. Red slits glared at the Master of Rapture through a helm of the deepest darkness, and even though the shadow-communion only showed a distant representation of his ally, Tradax could clearly perceive the man's murderous disdain and a shudder of pure fear shot through his spine.

"I'm honestly not even shocked. You Welkalites really are a useless, detestable race. Why I thought I could trust you with such an important duty is beyond me," he spat, and Tradax felt his anger rise. They were supposed to be allies, he was no longer just going to tale the other man's insults and snorts. They were supposed to be equals.

"If you hadn't taken so long getting to Usnaan, then none of this would have happened!" he shouted back, feeling empowered by the outburst and letting the natural Red mana he had been born with flow through him. "What, was the Lucaelian military too hard to handle? And anyway, if your traitorous bitch Aksua hadn't escaped as well and prevented our military from recapturing them, then the boys would still be here!"

"DO NOT QUESTION ME, YOU PATHETIC WRETCH!" the terrifying figure bellowed, and Tradax was flung across the room by the force of the words, crashing into the tapestries behind his throne and whimpering quietly. The figure of the man in the room became a whirling maelstrom of tenebrosity, expanding and pulsing with malicious force, "I DRAGGED YOUR WORTHLESS CIVILISATION OUT OF THE DIRT BEFORE IT TORE ITSELF APART, AND GAVE YOU THE MEANS TO RULE IT. YOU WOULD STILL BE A UNIMPORTANT, MINOR PAIN-SERVANT WERE IT NOT FOR ME. DO NOT _DARE_ TO THINK YOURSELF AS AN EQUAL TO ME!"

The manifestation of Tradax's ally then faded back to its normal size, and the pressure in the Welkalite's mind eased slightly.

"It seems you are incapable of detaining even Lucerna _children,_" he hissed, pacing towards the huddled form of the Master of Rapture, who had been degraded to pleading, sobbing sentences that made no sense in his terror. "I have no more use for you."

"Please!" Tradax begged, pressing himself further back into the wall in an attempt to make himself look as small as possible – had he been an observer, he would have laughed at the irony of the Master being reduced to doing what the poor Enforcer he had just killed had done.

"However," the dark lord sneered, and hope flared for a second in Tradax's mind, "I was originally going to punish you myself, but the purifying fire of my brother's vengeance will be an ample substitute."

"You can't just lea-" Tradax was about implore with the man, but the communion had been forcefully ended, leaving him sat in the room alone. His ally was right. Marik would want revenge for the killings of innocent Lucaelians and the abduction of his sons, and Tradax's face twisted into a leer. He would show the bastard brothers by repelling the legions of Lucael from Welkas, proving to all whom the greater nation was, who the better leader was. _Now is my chance to finally obtain glory and truly overthrow Redhand!_

.*.*.*.

Alexander's vacant eyes drifted away from Aksua's hypnotising beauty as a pillar of pure and incandescent light pierced through the cloud of gloom a few metres back, and the vampire scowled when a huge shaft of White mana shot towards her. She sidestepped and then flipped to the left to avoid being annihilated, but in the process losing her connection with the older Lucerna. That was irritating, but she and Nocturon had plenty more tricks up their sleeves. She _would _feast on this day.

The second the beam of radiance hit Alexander, the light became golden and more comforting, illuminating the boy in a warm glow that jolted his mind back into action, breaking it free of Aksua's charm. He shuddered as he recalled how close the vampire had been to him, and burning guilt pushed its way into his mind as he realised that he had left his little brother alone and undefended.

"Alex, are you alright?" Cai demanded, suddenly stepping next to him and shaking his brother, hoping that Alexander wasn't still stuck in Aksua's deadly allure and would be able to help him in the fight. He needed Alexander to be unharmed, and relief streaked through his body as the older boy grinned at him and ruffled his mop of brown hair, a reassuring and brotherly gesture through all of the desperate violence. Aksua cocked her head to one side and smirked at the two boys, re-Summoning Nocturon with noticeably more power this time, drawing deep into her wells of mana.

"Don't worry little bro, the bitch hasn't got me yet," he winked as the vampire scowled with mock offence. "How rude. And here I was thinking we were making progress." her sibilant words did little to hide the primal hunger suffused into every syllable, and a sensation of fear rose unbidden in Cai's mind. He realised then that Aksua had just been toying with them, but also how much she longed to drain them – every fibre of the vampire's being was thirsty for their blood, a craving that could only be satiated with their deaths – or Aksua's. Activating the Lens of Guilt confirmed these suspicions, the vampiress' body a pulsating mass of primeval desire and huge quantities of mana as yet unused.

"Big brother, can you distract her for a moment?" he inquired, automatically keeping his voice low although he knew vampires had the ability to detect sounds for ridiculous distances away. Alex narrowed his eyes, a quizzical expression forming on his handsome features, and Aksua watched intently, making no move to disrupt their strategizing. After all, she could hear whatever they were saying, so it didn't really matter that she gave them time to talk; adversely it would be fun to have a challenge once in a while. Besides, Aksua wasn't cruel (or so she thought), and allowing the brothers to spend a moment together before she killed them wouldn't be the worst, so instead she sat on a nearby rock and stretched her legs out.

"Why? What are you planning?" Alex asked back, his eyes darting back and forth between his little brother and the vampire, who smiled indulgently and occasionally winked flirtatiously at the older boy, making his blood boil as a sick feeling wormed through his gut. "I'm going to Summon Orzhova. Trust me on this, we need an angel to defeat her."

"Ok, I'll try," he said, pacing slowly away from his brother and towards their opponent. A sudden feeling of guilt pressed itself through the boy's mind, an emotion that he didn't often feel but one had spontaneously erupted in his brain, and with it an urge to pull Alex back and just hug the older boy, let his big brother protect him from Aksua's desire to feed. He swiftly flattened the emotions, identifying the need of his brother as his fear talking and deciding that fear was not worthy of a Lucerna's time. Instead he focussed on the hatred, the dark resentment of the vampire who threatened to tear him apart from Alexander, and mixed with his detestation of the abyss that ripped his loving and kind mother away from him, aiming it all at Aksua.

For the first time, made easier by the Lens of Guilt already being active, Caiellis conjured up Black mana first in his Summoning ritual, contrails of pure night swirling around him as the birthmark on his cheek shone with unholy force. Alexander felt his brother's magic level rise hugely, and remembered that this would be the first time he would see the kid's Summoning without his own active, making Orzhova seem that much more deadly. Determined not to be outdone, the seventeen year old ignored his fatigue and allowed flames to wrap around his fists, rage fuelling his Red mana as the vampiress beckoned languidly at him, a sweeping gesture that made it seem like Alex was doing this of his own free will, instead of being attacked by her.

He leapt at the woman, launching a barrage of fiery strikes that obliterated the rock Aksua had been sat on, as the vampire had leapt high into the air and fired shards of darkness that screeched through the air and shattered viciously on a shield of mana the teenager instinctively raised to protect himself. One pierced through his enchantments and dug into his arm, and the boy grimaced as it stuck into him. Blood spurted out from the wound, and he felt debilitating curses run through his veins.

The bitch had chosen the perfect time to challenge the boys – not close enough to Civitas Sol to have any chance of receiving help, but far enough into their escape that both boys were tired and less aware, becoming slightly more complacent after hours of travelling – had Alex been able to fully access his magic, he would have been able to purge the ailments and continue on with the fight, but now he had to contend with the full power of the vampire alone and the fact that his body was beginning to shut down. _If I can just hold on to when Caiellis has Summoned..._

"Feeling sleepy, handsome?" Aksua's lullaby voice drifted lullingly through his ears, the charm seemingly amplified by the negative enchantments she had inflicted upon him, and Alex tried to bring his arms up to defend himself but the limbs felt like they were being dragged through tar. He was powerless to block a leaping kick that lashed into his body with tremendous force, breaking a few ribs and sending him sprawling. He tried to stifle a cry of pain but when Aksua materialised out of the shadows and slammed her fist into the exact same spot as the kick, he couldn't halt the shout of agony.

"You only have to be conscious for me to savour you properly, subduing you is not a problem," the vampire purred, sliding onto the floor next to him and raking sharp nails down his side before blending back into her horror and emerging couple of metres away, shuddering in hunger when the succulent blood began to flow out, "Besides, I like my prey to be alive and kicking when I feed."

Meanwhile, Caiellis, who was about to complete his Summoning ritual, heard his brother's shriek of anguish. Rage poured through his mind, the need to protect his older brother fuelling his mana – the emotions sustaining the Black, combined with the already present hatred of the abyss and its residents, started to become darker, more sinister, as his loathing of Aksua increased the magnitude of energy he was releasing, Black completely equalling White in power.

A bolt of panic lanced through Aksua's mind as she picked up on the surge of mana that was coming from the youngest prince, abruptly realising that she was nowhere near strong enough to combat that – the boy's dark angel would be created in reality with a ludicrous magical strength, and Aksua would rather not have to deal with Orzhova, the personification of light and darkness far too formidable to handle with the amount of mana Caiellis was currently pouring into her. A gargantuan sphere of pulsing golden and onyx made her mind ache, so she decided that she would end the boy's Summoning now – using this technique would be incredibly risky, but it was better than having to contend with the Angel of the Black Sun.

As the hymnals emitted from the Black Sun reached a crescendo of noise and a sensation of absolute ascendancy caused Caiellis to want to laugh maniacally, Aksua growled and wrenched out mana from inside herself, blasting Nocturon towards the boy and tearing her arms open. As the stolen blood poured onto the ground, she infused Black mana into it and shrieked the forbidden words of a demonic spell, the inhuman syllables splitting her lips apart as a sticky, smoke-like substance belched out of her mouth. It mixed with Nocturon as he shot towards the vulnerable youngest Lucerna, and Alex shouted a pained warning as the horror sped towards his little brother. He tried to move, to drag himself along the floor and help the younger boy, but a sharp pain erupted in his back and he cried out.

Caiellis reopened his eyes, ready to fight as Orzhova's gauntlets reached out of the Black Sun, but blinked in startled shock as a mass of tendrils smashed through his guard and wrapped around him. _No!_ He desperately released mana all around him, feeling confusion and alarm thrust itself to the forefront of his mind as his vision was cut off, and tried to force the shadows away from him. A nauseous, sinking sensation subsumed his consciousness, and Cai felt himself drifting away into a deep darkness.

_No! Stop, I need to help Alex! No! Stop, Alex needs me!_ The panicked thoughts rushed together in a jumble of terror in the boy's mind as he realised that he was the only one that would be able to aid his injured big brother, and now he was being ripped away. He screamed and pounded at the darkness that was consuming him, intense and incandescent light having little effect on the midnight veil. His power levels began to decrease as his body began to shut down, and the last thing Caiellis heard was himself whimpering the name of his older brother. He felt tears roll down his face until even that stimulus faded away.

"You bitch! What have you done to him?!" Alexander demanded, invigorated by the torment imposed upon his little brother by Aksua's horror-creature. Volcanic fury exploded inside of him as he heard Caiellis speaking his name and crying, the black shadows wrapped around the youngest Lucerna obstructing his sibling's vision of him. A huge swell of mana pulled him to his feet, and before his rage-fuelled mind could process what was going on his wounded body was already charging towards the vampire.

"Ah ah aah!" the woman enunciated mockingly, wagging her slender fingers and stepping to avoid Alex's lunge, the spot she had been on demolished by a detonation of magma. "I have control of the situation here."

At a gesture, Nocturon pulsed away from Caiellis, the formless body of the Summoning now dancing around the fragile boy, who looked as if he was standing in a dream-state. As Alex was about to attack again, she made a viscous chopping motion and smiled vindictively as a gloom-tendril encircled Cai's thin left arm and twisted it at a painful angle. Alex heard the bone snap and took the hint, lowering the amount of mana he was releasing when the younger by cried out in pain, though didn't make any move to remove the tentacle wrapped round his

arm.

"Alright, I get it. Stop hurting him and I won't fight." Alex's voice took on a resigned tone, powering down the last vestiges of his mana as the vampiress smiled widely, her expression the epitome of atavistic hunger. If there was a choice between which prince was hurt, Alexander would choose himself every single time, and while Aksua attacked him Caiellis would hopefully be able to break out of the abyss-dweller's hexes. _Come on little brother, I need you here!_

"Now we can enjoy ourselves without that irritating child interrupting," Aksua purred, her brown orbs glinting with avarice and the need to gorge.

"And don't worry about dear Caiellis. He won't be coming back to reality any time soon, not after what Nocturon has in store for him."

.*.*.*.

King Marik Ensis Lucerna tapped his steel-clad fingers on the desk that had been donated to him by Hierarch Aretis when him and his elite guards took up residence in the City of the Sun after he had returned from the disastrous trip to the Scholaria Magnus. The methodical _clack_ of the armour against the mahogany table clearly emphasised how uncomfortable the man was feeling – how could any father relax when their children were abducted?

After returning to the landing beach, he had "appropriated" the Yentarian Airship for his own purposes, informing the Isakian diplomat Pasko that the vehicle would now be utilised by the Kingdom of Light. Before he, the Capitalia Lux Light-bearers, his royal guards and Jenna embarked for the journey back to Lucael, the party was confronted by two Lucaelian students that Marik recognised as the twins of his favoured general Carlis (_**just remembered how similar that name is to Caiells...damn**)_ Montlea. The boy's face was contorted with rage, and while the girl had hidden her anger better it still seethed through her skin, present in her actions.

"_We want to fight!"_ the young man declared, to which his sister scowled and added a belated: "_My lord."_

She had informed him that the two noticed the Welkalites taking Caiellis and Alexander away from the Scholaria Magnus, and judging by the awful bruise on the youngest's throat they had been abducted with the unparalleled bargaining chip of the king's precious youngest son's life. At first he would have been against taking them away from the academy and thrusting them into the war (or "crusade" he preferred to think of it as) he was going to start against the Empire of Passion, but when he saw the fire in their eyes he couldn't refuse – the tipping point was when the girl had sensed his reticence and told the monarch that they would be eighteen in six (five now) days anyway, so were to all intents and purposes adults. The children of Carlis clearly cared about his sons, and Marik would have felt a warm feeling of parental pride if not for the unflinching rage and regret coursing through his brain.

They now sat with their father and mother, who was a formidable High Priestess, in the strategy room, discussing the best Welkalite cities to strike simultaneously with Usnaan, or to just leave the other settlements alone and focus solely on retrieving the royal heirs, with Guardians Oleic and Tristram and Hierarch Aretis along with a slew of other Civitas Sol commanders. The main problem with launching a strike this early would be that the king would not be able to mobilise the full extent of the Lucaelian military, but the garrison of Civitas Sol along with himself and two extra Capitalia Lux Light-bearers should be able to overcome the soldiers of the Welkalite capital and rescue the boys, but every second Marik waited was a second that his children could have been killed or worse.

Normally Tybalt would have admonished the king, telling him that his constant noise-creating wasn't going to solve anything (Marik had done that even when he was a child trying to solve a problem the then-teacher had set for him), but like most of the people in the expansive room he shared the man's agitation. Him, along with Tristram, considered the brothers as their own children, and as technically they had spent more time with them than with their own father, he had plenty of excuses to worry. He was sure that these Lucernas were taking years off his lifespan. _Why didn't just become a librarian or something peaceful instead? _Tybalt thought, only half jokingly. He had often pondered the question in the civil war, wondering how his life had come to this and how he had become so important, but now he knew he didn't have enough time left to think about his regrets.

However, there were many positives to being as old as he was – he had been able to see King Marik grow from a youthful, thin and timid prince into one of the most confident and successful Lucernan kings, and the man's young sons were beginning to become adults themselves, though he doubted Caiellis would ever stop referring to him or Tristram as "Uncle". The boy's affection was cute and welcomed, but Tybalt wished that the youngest Lucerna would be able to show the same love to Marik that he did towards the Hierarch. At least their relationship had improved over the course of the month after the end of the civil war, which at the start of Cai never engaged his father in conversation, which however was mostly due to the man's harshness and the almost fanatical devotion the thirteen year old attributed to attempting to passing his Summoning.

Tybalt silently chastised himself, he often thought far too much about Caiellis and not enough about his other student, the bright but mostly uninterested Alexander who would much rather be with Tristram participating in physical training. At least he had readily accepted Marik more, but then again the king had no reason to be critical of the older boy. Tybalt assured himself that at least Cai would be alright if his older brother was with him, but since the teenager had a tendency to through himself in front of blows targeted at his fragile sibling, he wouldn't be surprised if the boy returned with a few scrapes from constantly trying to protect his little brother.

It was sweet that he went that far for the younger boy, although there had been lots of past occasions where Cai had saved his older brother, normally by healing him but more rarely by destroying threatening enemies. Tybalt had to remind himself that Cai could now be a killing machine now that he had unlocked the Angel of the Black Sun, as while White mana mixed protective enchantments with offensive force to ensure the survival of the wielder and their allies, Black was much more aggressive and prone to strike first. Mixing the two would be hard, but Tybalt had faith in his littlest student.

_Here I go again, thinking about Caiellis,_ Tybalt admonished, though he supposed that someone had to do it in a positive light apart from the boy's brother. In the kingdom, Alexander was definitely the favourite, stemming from the citizens' natural abhorrence of dark magic and the fact that the older prince was more charismatic and confident. Of course both princes and their father were still loved by the public, feeling great outrage when they were abducted, but it was hard not to think of the smaller adolescent as the inferior. Maybe Cai would be able to prove that they were both equal.

Marik's loud gasp punctuated the ancient Hierarch's thoughts, abruptly snapping him out of his reverie.

"My lord?" Aretis inquired, standing up out of the plump chair he was reclining on and joining the other occupants of the strategy chamber in running to the monarch's side. The man clutched the side of his head in what Tybalt assumed was pain, consternation clouding his sculpted features as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"My lord, what is happening?" the Civitas Sol Hierarch asked again, his voice taking on a pleading tone and Tybalt glared at him, commanding: "Be silent boy! The king has detected something."

As if to prove his words correct, Marik reopened his eyes, the blue orbs filled with a cold determination that made the Hierarch's heartbeat quicken. He had seen that expression in the king's eyes before when they truly discovered that Johnias had betrayed Lucael and had ordered the assassination of Emili, running as fast as he could to the nursery, and it brought a great sense of foreboding to the forefront of the old man's mind.

"Servants of Lucael. My sons are in the abyss. I just felt Caiellis's mana out there, piercing the darkness before being overwhelmed by it again. I can pinpoint his exact location, and while I do not know what is happening I know that with certainty Alexander will be at his brother's side." Marik explained, his tone clipped, professional and urgent. That relieved Tybalt slightly, as at least this time the king wasn't desperate. "I do not know whether Caiellis did that to try and contact us, or whether they are fighting, but we go at once to them."

He began to stride out of the room, his limbs suffused with fresh purpose now that he knew his boys had escaped the clutches of the Welkalites (or at least got out of the empire) but he also realised that they were in the dangerous darkness outside of Civitas Sol and would probably need help.

"How are we going to get to them?" he heard Carlis's son, Leodred if he could recollect, ask loudly, and though the question was not directed at him the king spun around.

"We go to my sons by Airship," he replied, and Leo blinked in surprise at Marik himself directly answering his inquiry, "You and your sister stay here with your mother and father. The ship can only take so many occupants, and I mean no offence, especially to Carlis, but I would rather have my Light-bearers at my side at the moment. Rest assured you will be able to see Alexander and Caiellis later. Ave lux"

"Of course, my lord. Ave lux," the general replied, wrapping an arm around his son's shoulders, the boy looking as if he was going to object. Marik nodded briefly and then swiftly set off again, glad that Tristram had had the foresight to continue on while the king was slightly delayed to ensure the Airship was ready to launch by the time Marik got there. The Yentarian scientists had installed machinery on the vehicle that allowed, through the application of intellectual Blue mana, for anyone to learn the spells required to pilot the vehicle. He hoped his sons were alright, though every parental instinct he had screamed towards them being hurt – the flash of mana that Caiellis sent out had no doubt been cancelled, otherwise the youth would have kept it going.

_Alexander, Caiellis, I'm coming. Maybe I will finally be able to do something as your father._

.*.*.*.

_Caiellis's eyes snapped open, the remnants of the dream slowly fading from his sight as he sat up in the plumb bed, pushing the soft covers off him. He checked the time on the ornate but not ostentatious watch next to him on the cabinet to the left of his bed – 07:02._

Wait, what? Why am I here? What is going on? _The boy thought, jumping off the bed and forcing his tired limbs into action. _What the hell is happening? Where is Alex?_ Caiellis remember__ed__ desperate fighting, although he c__ouldn__'t recall who it was against, or what exactly was taking place, but he kn__ew__ for certain that his older brother need__ed__ help. Why, then, __was__ he back in his bedroom in __Capitalia Lux__?_

"_Aren't you going to check for sunlight?" __a voice, female and full of affection, strangely familiar but yet still unknown to Caiellis, rang out, and the boy turned around to see a girl, around his age but still a bit older, giggling and stepping out of the doorway and into Cai's room proper._

"_Who are you?" the prince __demanded__, his expression instantly becoming guarded and White mana flowing out of his limbs, taking up a combat posture._

"_What do you mean, Cai?" the girl asked, taken aback as if he had asked a ridiculous question. The boy sternly repeated his inquiry, flashing the mana for effect, and the girl, taller than him by a few inches, took a step back and raised her hands._

"_Calm down, Caiellis! I'm Hollie, remember?" she grinned at him, her grey-blue eyes half-masked by a fringe of dazzling __silver/white__ hair. She wore a white gown, making Caiellis recall with a jolt that he was still in his pyjamas, __and she confidently walked towards him, and though he didn't lower his guard of mana Cai felt uncertainty cloud his mind. Who was this girl? She obviously wasn't a threat, nor was she scared by his usage of magic, and when she looked back into his eyes she sighed emphatically. "Hollie Otium Lucerna! Your cousin?"_

_When Hollie noticed that the veil of confusion hadn't lifted, she ignored the younger boy, brushing past the stunned Caiellis and opening the curtains._

_Confused and irritated, Cai turned around, about to announce that he had no cousins, but when he met the eyes of his reflection the Lucerna froze. His appearance, __a youthful-looking pale boy with high cheek-bones and dark green eyes shrouded by messy brown hair__staring back, his __large__ and expressive orbs opened __wide in shock, was the same – apart from one thing. Instead of an ominous reminder that Caiellis was a pariah within Lucael, host to the cause of the largest cataclysm in the kingdom's history, __the black stain on his cheek was replaced by an elegant symbol of a silver collar. _That meant that Or-... Why can't I think of her name? All that comes to mind is the Angel of the Black Sun, but I **know** her name. I can't have just forgotten it...

_Caiellis looked deep inside of his mind, panic flooding through it when he couldn't visualise the dark angel or her residence in the Mind Realm, and he suddenly resolved to go to whatever his Mind Realm was._

"_Not sunny, as usual. That's not fair, when are you ever going to get to see the sun?" Hollie tutted and turned to her cousin, his pupils diluted in shock. She shook his skeletal shoulders and then realised that for whatever reason he had chosen to visit his First Sisterhood angel._

_For the second time in whatever was going on, Cai's eyes snapped open and he jolted forwards, taking in the strange and unfamiliar place around him – a large cathedral surrounded him, a circular room with many stained glass windows and silver decorations surrounding it. When an otherworldly voice said his name, he spun around, greeted by the sight of a large angel – Caiellis recognised her as Avacyn, Angel of Hope from research he had done, and further bewilderment caused his mind to spin. Since when was Avacyn his Summoning? Since when did he have a cousin?_

"_Caiellis?" the angel asked again, her golden irises narrowing in concern. "Are you alright?"_

Focus, focus, _Cai told himself, repeating the mantra over and over in his head as he felt a sense of vertigo wash over him. He had started to breath faster, though not to the extent where he was hyperventilating, and his mind refused to work as it failed to process these new revelations. _Focus. What is important? Alexander. Your brother needs you. Find Alex.

_He dispelled the introspection, mentally tumbling out of the Mind Realm and landing with a nauseous lurch back into "reality", or whatever this place that was posing at it was._

"_What was that all about? Are you ok?" Hollie asked, her eyes portraying her amusement at the younger boy's antics. Cai had a hundred questions to ask, ranging from "How do I have a cousin?" to "What day is it?" but concentrated on the most pertinent one._

"_Where is Alex?" he questioned, figuring that he should be trying to locate his sibling and see if he was alright. The girl blinked for a moment, perplexed by the spontaneity of the request, and laughed._

"_He is in the room next door, asleep," she responded, taking a moment to peer down at the younger boy, worry prevalent in her blue eyes. "Though I doubt he is anymore after the racket you created."_

"_I'll go get your brother for you," she suggested after a few seconds after the boy didn't reply, his youthful and cute features still locked in an expression of startled stupefaction. She stepped outside of the room for a second and called her older cousin's name loudly, faced with an irritated and tired, "What?"_

"_Your brother needs you. Badly," she stated back, grinning when she heard the older boy launch into movement at the mere mention of his precious little brother. Although Alexander was protective of her, it was nothing in comparison to how he guarded his fragile and innocent little brother. Cai had been acting up, but hopefully the comforting form of his big brother would help._

_A drowsy looking Alex appeared after a few seconds, his blonde hair wild and still sticking up after being in bed, and Hollie beckoned over to the older boy. Together they walked back to Caiellis, who was still breathing fast, the breaths hitching in and out of his small chest._

"_Alex? How can you be here?" Cai asked, and Alex looked at him quizzically, to which Hollie added, "I don't know what's up with little cous-cous, he seems frightened and agitated, like when he was when we were in the civil war."_

"_Alright, little buddy, do you want to tell me what is going on?" Alex walked towards his brother and embraced him in a brotherly hug, feeling the smaller boy trembling._

"_I..I need to help you," Cai declared softly, trying to extricate himself from the older boy's embrace and push him away – whatever this was, it couldn't be Alex. There was no way. Yes, it felt and spoke like Alex, and yes, he still felt that warm and safe sensation in his mind when his big brother was around, but it still didn't remove the inkling that the older boy was it grave danger, despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary._

_Alexander shared a confused glance with his cousin and pulled Cai closer, overpowering his feeble resistance and resting his chin on the mop of brown hair atop his sibling's head. The younger boy began whimpering, sniffling and whispering, "I need to help you."_

"_What is going on in here?" a familiar man's voice interrupted them, and although the tone was stern it carried and undercurrent of affection and mirth._

"_Hey dad. Hi Uncle Marik," Hollie said the things consecutively, and Cai opened his eyes – he hadn't even realise that he squeezed them shut. He pulled away from Alex, who let him go, and gasped when a face pushed itself into his vision. It was his father's face, but in the same instance not – the tell-tale scar on the man's chin coupled with the four-pointed Star of Serenity on the top left of his forehead confirmed his identity, although Caiellis hadn't seen this person for nine years. Hatred coursed through his mind, a primal hostility that burned through the boy's veins._

"_Johnias," he growled, his voice filled with hatred and a potent resonance – it seemed that even with Avacyn as his Summoning, he still had a huge battery of mana to utilise, though it was solely devoted to White mana. "You traitorous bastard."_

_The man cocked his eyebrows confusedly, while another, angrier voice graced Cai's ears, "Caiellis, show some respect! How dare you address your uncle in such a way! I'm of the right mind to severely punish you for that"_

_Johnias waved away his brother's reprimanding admonishment of his son, ignoring the huge quantities of mana the boy was releasing in his very clear hatred and walking towards the boy. Alex, Hollie and Marik stepped back across the room, and Johnias asked: "Cai, what is wrong?"_

"_Little cous-cous has been acting strange all morning," Hollie cut in exasperatedly, shielding her eyes from the glare emitted by the younger boy, whose eyes were lit up in golden fury. Johnias chuckled quietly, and said: "Don't call him that, Hollie, he's only two years younger than you. Almost a man," he smiled and shared a conspiratorial wink with his favourite nephew (though he loved Alex and would never admit it to him), who glared back, his normally emerald orbs consumed with incandescent light. "Open up buddy. Share what's up."_

"_I have no words for traitors," he spat, continuing to glower at the man, who shrugged his shoulders, miffed. "Welp, if I'm a traitor than I'm definitely in the best place to betray the kingdom."_

"_Cai, Uncle Johnias isn't a traitor," Alex said in a reassuring big brother tone, making to move towards the younger boy but stopped when Johnias held up a restraining hand. "Why am I a traitor, Caiellis?"_

"_Are you seriously asking me that?!" Cai shouted, mana bleeding out of him and obliterating the carpeted floor around him, singing the purple fabric. "Yeah. Why am I a traitor? I want to know."_

_Cai didn't know why he felt compelled to answer the man, who wasn't using any magic or in any way reacting to the threatening form of his nephew, instead of striking him down in righteous vengeance._

"_Fine, I'll indulge you, for now. After my father became king, you plotted to overthrow him for many years, turning Crescia, City of Commerce, Vectura, City of Transportation and Epulaeous, City of Nourishment against Lucael," Cai's voice started shaking as he recalled the events that had ruined his childhood, "Then after that, you sent demons to kill me and my brother but only succeeded in," -deep breath- "Murdering our mother. Me and Alex had to flee Capitalia Lux, live our lives on the run from your demons as dad fought a civil war lasting nine years against you. When he finally won, you fled with your traitorous compatriots into the abyss, leaving Lucael and my father shattered." his voice became an accusatory shout, "Why did you do it? Was it jealously that your twin brother became king instead of you? WHY DID YOU DO IT? WE WERE HAPPY! WHY DID YOU KILL HER!?"_

_Johnias's mouth opened and closed in stunned shock, and Alex took that moment to shove past him and slam his little brother into the wall, gripping the boy's pyjama collar tightly and lifting him off his feet._

"_What the hell are you saying? Johnias never betrayed anyone – and he's the king, not dad! Yes, Vectura, Epulaeous and Crescia did rebel, allying with the forces of the abyss and striking the palace, forcing, me, you and Hollie to flee with Tybalt and Tristram – but the war only lasted five years!" he shouted into his paralysed brother's face, shaking him violently._

"_GET AWAY FROM ME!" Caiellis screamed, his normally soft and adorable voice full of pain none of them could understand, forcing Alex to drop him out of fear that he had hurt his little brother. He shut his eyes, crying and covering his face with his small hands, curling up into a ball avoiding the sea of concerned glances coming from what apparently was his family. _I want to leave! I want to leave! I want to leave! I-

_A hand, slender and gentle, was placed on his shoulder, and calming energy flowed through his body, dispelling the conflicted emotions battling for supremacy in his mind. He tentatively removed his hands, his green eyes still puffy from the tears, and was met with something that once again made his breath catch in his throat. There, smiling lovingly down at him, was his mother. The pale purity of her face, just how he remembered it from his childhood but perhaps very slightly older, brought fresh tears to his eyes, although this time they were tears of happiness. She was alive, his mother was alive! The nurturing, comforting, loving, perfect woman that was ripped away from Caiellis when he was four years old was hear in front of him, and he pressed his head into her stomach, sniffling loudly._

"_Shhh, Caiellis. Everything is going to be alright," she soothed, the perfection of her words sending shudders of contentment he thought he was incapable of experiencing any more down his spine. "I'm not going anywhere."_

"_And I'm not going to betray Lucael," Johnias added, sitting beside his nephew and sister in law, and smiling as his wife also entered the room. "I promise."_

"_Yeah, sorry about earlier," Alex said abashedly, also depositing himself behind his younger brother and stroking his hair, Hollie and Marik also making their presence known to help comfort Caiellis, the latter muttering, "You're not five, get out of your mother's arms and be a man."_

"_Don't be mean, Marik," Emili chastised, and both husbands and wives laughed._

I could stay here, _Caiellis thought as another wave of cheerful delight washed through him. _I'm not hated or feared, and I no longer have to deal with Black mana. Uncle Johnias isn't a traitor, I have a cousin that loves me, dad isn't consumed with grief and mum is still alive.

And most of all, _he thought, glancing up at his big brother, who winked encouragingly and poked him on the nose, laughing merrily at his blink of surprise,_ Alex is ok. And I'm happy.

* * *

><p><em>Originally I was going to conclude the battle between the boys and Aksua in this chapter, but considering how long it took to write this (sorry about that) and how many words I used, I think it would be better done at the beginning of the next chapter and that to follow on in the same instalment. Sorry for the cliffhanger :P I probably won't get another chapter out before (though I'm hoping to finish the next before 2015), so Merry Christmas, and thank you for following my story so far!<em>


	16. The Price You Pay

_Disclaimer – some readers might find this slightly disturbing, but it shouldn't be anything a teenager can't handle. Just thought I'd put that out there. _

_I listen to music when I write, and I have a playlist on Youtube that I have on shuffle – I like to believe that the songs influence the writing. While I was writing the scene with Aksua and Alexander, the Final Fantasy 13 Sunleth Waterscape theme started playing, which is one of the most cheerful things I have ever heard. I just found it ironic that I was writing this scene of disturbing violence to the light and cheerful background of that. :P _

_Actually, on that point I've been trying to think of a song or theme that relates to each of my main characters, but I can't quite think of one for Alexander or Marik. Any suggestions?_

"What have you done to Caiellis?" Alex demanded again, taking a fearful step back towards his little brother despite himself, his blue eyes still locked in place with Aksua's chocolate spheres. The vampire paced slowly closer to him, languidly tensing and releasing her muscles in anticipation of her meal. It didn't feel right to Alexander to just let her do this to him – every instinct he had screamed for him to fight back, but at the same time he didn't want his little brother to be hurt more, and there was a possibility that the boy would be able to break out of whatever Aksua's Summoning was doing to him, so he was stuck.

The woman licked her lips, feeling the weary young man in front of her about to succumb to her charm once again. She didn't have much magical energy left after she used her most powerful spell on Caiellis, but was still in possession of her supernatural speed and strength. Aksua thought it had been worth it to subdue the boy – his dark angel would have been too strong to deal with, and now with him out of the equation Alex was all hers.

After that, she would feed on the younger boy, although the thought of it left a slightly bitter taste at the back of her mouth that was soon subsumed within the desire to gorge on this boy's blood, to find out if it really was as exquisite as it was said to be. Killing children never sat well with Aksua, although she had done it numerous times in the past – at least Alex was an adult now, and very attractive to boot, much like his father.

"Nocturon sent him to the realm of his deepest desires," Aksua giggled at the expression of outrage plastered on the adolescent's face, stepping closer to him as he inched backwards, batting her eyelids and intently observing how the boy's heart-rate quickened out of lust for her, pumping blood at an increased speed out of his wounds. "Give in, Alexander. You know you want to – Caiellis is happy," she whispered, though her words still reached Alex's ears, the alluring tone making him want to lower his defences, as she continued, "And I can make you happy as well, while you do the same for me. I can show you true pleasure, not the pathetic half-ecstasy Tradax and his over-indulged cronies blabber on about. I can make your inner dreams, your deepest desires," she shadow-stepped next to him, taking in the scent of his noble blood, feeling her plans finally coming to fruition, as she leaned in to the side of his head, her mouth inches from his ear, "Come true."

"I'm not entirely sure my deepest desires consist of becoming your meal," Alex smiled charmingly at her, as her features twisted into an annoyed scowl. Now that he had managed to steel himself and his little brother was in very real danger, he had been able to resist her charm. It wasn't going to work on him twice. "Besides, although you're very pretty, you're not my type – I prefer shyer girls to ones that hunt you from one nation to another."

Aksua shrieked in fury and backhanded him, the force of the blow sending Alexander spinning through the air as pain erupted on his cheek. Ouch. That would leave a painful bruise. He landed sprawled next to Caiellis, who was still trapped within Nocturon's dream-land, the shapeless horror still pooling around him.

It hissed threateningly at Alex's proximity, exposing several gnashing mouths full of bleached teeth and coalescing more prominently around the boy's younger brother, but otherwise made no move towards the middle Lucerna. Cai's eyes were still shut, but judging from his heightened breathing and occasional gasps and sobs the boy was under a lot of emotional strain. He wished he could come to his brother's aid, but Nocturon would just injure the kid more if he tried to help. It was up to Caiellis to free himself from the induced-unconsciousness, but the youngest Lucerna was very mentally strong so Alex probably wouldn't have to wait long. The boy's leg was still bleeding, the horror making no motion to stem the trickle of crimson liquid, and Alex shuddered when it finally hit him that if he fell too quickly, didn't allow his little brother enough time to escape from his mind then they would both die.

He scrambled back, focussing on the more immediate situation of trying to prevent Aksua from doing as much damage as she could before his brother reawakened – he didn't really want to rely on Cai, but Alexander could discern that at least the boy was putting up resistance considering the tension present in his body and the annoyed grunts he was making. _I just have to hold on..._

"You're going nowhere, handsome," Aksua purred seductively and leapt towards him, landing on top of the boy and knocking the air out of him. Her hands slid down his sides, and equal amounts of conflicting longing and disgust running through him as the vampire straddled him, the mere aura of her slowing his movements through a mixture of nauseating Black magic and her captivating allure.

The scent of the young man's blood and the heat of his skin was intoxicating, and Aksua grabbed Alexander's wrists, pressing them into the hard stone of the ground, completely overriding his feeble opposition – though the boy was physically very strong, he was weakened by his exhaustion, lack of mana and Aksua's debilitating curses, whereas the vampire was augmented by supernatural strength, her demonic gifts that grew in power due to her proximity to the abyss and her primal lust for his blood.

"I think a room in Civitas Sol would be more suitable...for what you've apparently got planned," Alex gasped out of the pain he felt – the vampire was sat on his broken ribs, grinding them against each other in flaring agony. She giggled and ran her claws down his sides once again, trying to take the time to savour the moment before she finally drank and moaning softly at the grunts of pain the teenager emitted. "Oh no babe. The darkness if fine, just me and you here, able to do whatever we wish – I know you want me, and we can visit the heights of pleasure together before you die."

"No...thanks," he managed to wheeze out as she increased the pressure on his chest, scraping his ribs against his lungs and making breathing a painful experience. Aksua cocked an eyebrow, the atavistic hunger in her eyes half-masked by a veneer of playful flirtatiousness, and she increased the intensity of her curses the dark magic sapping the boy of strength but ensuring that he was fully conscious for what was about to happen. "Oh, I see. Would you prefer it if little Caiellis joined in?"

"That's...disgusting," Alex half-growled, sincerely hoping that the bitch wouldn't drag his little brother into it. He definitely didn't want her violating the younger boy as well. "Luckily for you, baby, I completely agree. While he is cute, he's nowhere near as handsome or attractive as you, and he's way too thin for my tastes. I'd much prefer just you and me." Alex grunted in pain as she released one of his arms – he automatically went to swing at her, but when she wagged her finger and Cai started sobbing uncontrollably, he stopped. He tried to twist his head, to see what new torment was being inflicted upon his little brother, but the vampire held his cheek and forced him to look into her eyes. She lulled in a soothing voice: "Don't worry about your precious little brother, he's fine – for now. And I'm fully aware that you are trying to delay so that he can somehow escape from Nocturon's embrace, but rest assured there is no chance of that happening – once young Cai sees what I've got planned, he won't want to leave. Give in. You know you want to. Give in to me, and I'll make your last moments as pleasurable as possible."

"I...don't think so...bitch," he replied through gritted teeth, shaking his head vigorously as the vampire scowled. She slapped his across the face, bouncing his head off the ground in a sickening impact. The pumping of his heart, adrenalized by the panic he felt, was amplified in the vampire's head, becoming an addictive drumbeat that she could no longer ignore. Aksua abandoned the pretence of wanting to do anything else other than feed, and clamped her mouth round the wounds on his side. It was bliss. The blood pouring into her mouth was the most exquisite, the most _perfect_, thing she had ever tasted, and it took all of Aksua's self-control to not drain him dry right there – who knew when she would next get any Lucernas to savour?

Alex only just resisted the urge to vomit as he felt the vampire sucking the blood out of the cuts she had created, feeling his stomach churn at the revolting actions. _Caiellis please, you have to wake up! I need you, please!_ After a few seconds of greedily slurping on the vitae, Aksua pulled away, her mouth covered in the scarlet fluids and her pupils dilated in ecstasy.

"You taste as good as you look, pretty boy," she laughed, the beauty of the sound utterly at odds with the desperate situation, and then frowned as she noticed the boy's lips moving silently, pain flashing periodically over his sculpted but now deathly pale features. Aksua snorted derisively as she recognised the ancient syllables of the _Canticia __Luxia__, _the Lucaelian battle-hymn that was said to be written by the first monarch, King Matalis Ortus Lucerna, after the First Angel apparently told him it. Aksua didn't believe that for a second, and found it wonderfully ironic that in his pain the prince had resorted to mouthing that.

"No angels can save you from me," she whispered sensuously, noticing the effects of her enchantments slowly killing her victim. That was the thing about a vampire's bite – it didn't just extract blood from the target, but also afflicted them with a death-causing curse.

That was why vampires had always had to prey upon humans to survive, as they couldn't just abduct a few and then feast on them for many years because they would die, and the blood deteriorated a few minutes before that. Aksua knew she didn't have that long before her meal expired, judging by his pained breathing, pale skin and his eyes losing their blue lustre and becoming more faded. At least his blood was still crimson and pure, not oily and black, which meant she had a few more minutes to enjoy the sensation. And, by whatever gods may be out there, that sensation was rapturous. She would drink some more of the blood from other wounds, create some more, and then go for the jugular before the fluid became corrupted – it was still edible, but if she had wanted just edible then she could have attacked any random village and got it.

Alex moaned in pain as the vampire ripped off his shirt, sticking her teeth into his muscled flesh and biting hard. He could still feel the agony of the torment, but his mind was beginning to shut itself away from the reality of torture. He tried to fight it, reminding himself that his little brother still needed him, that he needed to stay awake to survive, but his battered psyche insisted that it was time to rest.

"Caiells..." he whimpered, and his head lolled back – this time the vampire made no move to stop him from looking at his sibling. Despair ran through him when he saw his little brother's face – the boy was still crying, tears running unimpeded down his innocent features, but now instead of distress and pain a contented expression adorned his face, a happy smile that Alex knew hadn't properly graced his little brother since he was a small child – sure, he had been reasonably happy on numerous occasions in the past, especially around his big brother, but their mother's death and the civil war had left significant emotional scarring on both of the princes that neither wanted to confront. _Cai...please...help,_ he pleaded, too weak to say the words as his blood was drained from within him and dark curses began to travel through his bloodstream. _Please...little bro...big bro needs you..._

"Not too long now, beautiful," Aksua's soothing voice could be heard, indicating that she had finished feeding in that area, but Alex could no longer feel anything physical apart from a sensation of pain that encompassed his whole body, "On the bright side for you, at least you won't have to wait very long for your little brother after you leave."

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex noticed something strange, although he couldn't quite focus on it. He couldn't move his head from where his gaze was fixated upon his little brother, and blessed unconsciousness was beckoning him into its endless abyss, but Alexander knew he had to fight. Then suddenly, the vampire's tone changed. The middle Lucerna let out a guttural scream of suffering as Aksua conjured up a blade of pure shadow and vindictively rammed it through him with a fierce snarl of disappointment, all his other pain seemingly fading away in light of this new agony.

A wave of light pulsed over him, flinging the vampire across the abandoned village, where she landed elegantly on all fours and poised to face this new threat, he body tensed and ready to explode into action. A heavy impact cracked the ground next to Alex, who tried to move his head to see what it was.

"Everything is alright, Alexander," a harsh voice, brimming with righteous and cold anger but also coloured slightly with parental warmth, spoke, and Alex experienced an emotion that he hadn't in several years, one of safety knowing that his father was watching over him. "You can go to sleep now. I will deal with this bitch."

"Is that any way to address a former lover, Marik-Sweetie?" Aksua smirked flirtatiously, although underneath the masquerade of pleasantry was a burning rage at being interrupted.

The rush of addictive ecstasy she had felt as the Lucerna's blood pour through her was dissipating, replaced by a primeval longing that Aksua knew would consume her if she couldn't feed again soon. Despite being pulled away from her current prey, a greater opportunity had presented itself – instead of just two young Lucerna princes, the king of the entire nation had come to stop her.

And apparently, so had his lackeys, who were busy landing the Yentarian Airship a safe distance away before rushing to their king's aid, who himself had jumped out of the vehicle the second he saw his sons in danger, Summoning as he did so. The hated Angel of Wrath, Akroma, had appeared at the king's side, the seraph that had dealt her a near fatal blow the first time she had been close to fully feasting on a member of the royal family. Aksua knew it was stupid of her to fight, that she should just flee, but the lust to feed was too strong now to be overcome by any rational thought. Besides, even if she did try to leave she doubted that the king wouldn't hunt her down in his need for vengeance against what she had done to his sons, and she may never get a chance to drain a Lucerna again.

"It's been a while, Aksua," Alexander heard his father say, the man's voice distant like he was shouting it from a very large distance away, instead of stood protectively in front of him. He knew his father was right, that he should just let unconsciousness take him, but it went against all his instincts to let others protect him and not to help. The last thing he heard was: "Aren't you supposed to be dead, Sweetheart?"

"Despite how ridiculously big your angel's sword is, it was only a scratch," she shot back, moving closer to Caiellis now that Marik blocked her from the now inert Alex, smirking as she saw the man's countenance twist to become full of hatred – but more than just that, Aksua perceived a flash of disappointment clouding his furious blue eyes as they passed over the comparatively unharmed younger sibling, who still had that contented smile on his face. "It takes a lot more than that to get rid of me."

Marik felt sympathy war with bitter resentment when he looked at his youngest, still trapped in the vampire's dream-world – he himself couldn't really talk about resisting Aksua's charm, having let the vampire get close enough to almost kill him, but Cai had left Alex unguarded and the older brother had paid for it. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind – both his sons needed him to focus and slay the vampire once and for all, so there would be no room for distractions. He growled threateningly as Aksua ran her slender fingers through the mop of brown hair on Caiellis's head, her shadow-Summoning purring in delight as its mistress touched it.

"I feel a bit mean, actually," Aksua admitted, her tone full of sarcasm, "I've hurt Alex more than his mind can comprehend, but as I focussed all of my time on him I've not yet had the chance to _truly_ hurt little Caiellis yet, and now is as good a time as ever."

"Get away from him!" Marik shouted, though he felt the words were empty, and formed a selection of glowing swords from his pure White mana, flinging them at the vampire and trying not to hit his son with the magical blades. Aksua hissed in annoyance as she was forced to move away from the smallest prince to avoid being impaled, gracefully somersaulting out of the way of the swords as they sang through the air. She skulked to the side, recalling Nocturon as she realised that she would need all of her power to face the king head on. Anyway, after his failed Summoning the boy would have barely any mana to work with, and the abrupt disconnection from the realm of dreams that induced by her abyssal horror often left victims incredibly disorientated and nauseous – plus, Nocturon was vindictive and viscous, echoing its Summoning, so Aksua doubted the horror would leave the boy's mind peacefully.

.*.*.*.

_Caiellis smiled up at his family, feeling the warmth and love in their gazes and slowly erasing his memories of that other world – it must just have been some form of dream, but it had greatly scared the boy. Judging by the relief etched on his brother's features, who now looked at him affectionately, it had frightened them as well. Cai wasn't surprised – accusing his uncle of being a traitor, not remembering who his cousin was, thinking his mother was dead and insisting that Alex needed help would have alarmed him if the situation was reversed._

"_You had me scared for a second there, kiddo," Alex scoffed, punching him on the arm and being met by disapproving glares from Hollie and Emili, as Cai yelped in pain and massaged the limb. "What, it's not like that should hurt him."_

"_Don't be mean to little cous-cous, Alex," Hollie chastised childishly, grinning playfully at him and winking at her cousin, who blinked in bemusement, a child-like expression of confusion on his youthful face. Alex laughed at said: "I'm pretty sure you saying that is more annoying than me punching him in a brotherly manner."_

"_Don't be a hypocrite, Alexander," their mother laughed, making to stand up but sitting back down when Caiellis's little hands grabbed her arm tightly, not wanting his mum to leave. "You have thousands of nicknames for him, and not all of them are nice. Besides, when does Cai ever call you something other than you own name or big brother?"_

"_Never, but you don't understand, mum," Alex grinned mischievously, "You never had any siblings to torment," he said, plucking Cai from his mother's embrace and wrapping him in a painful arm-lock that restricted the boy's movements._

"_The kid has a point, Emili," Johnias added, patting Marik on the head as the other man sent him a glowering death-stare, "A big brother has the divine right to make his sibling's life a misery."_

_Caiellis laughed loudly at the look of pure irritation on his father's face, quickly silencing when the man glared back at him. Smiling evilly, he said: "I would like to discuss the nature of your punishment for the disrespect you showed to your uncle and king, young man."_

_The boy's face fell, recalling that he had acted with extreme hostility in the presence of poor Johnias, his uncle never having done anything to warrant his ire. His father was right, he deserved a punishment for his actions, and he made to kneel in front of his uncle before belatedly remembering that he was still in Alex's wrestling hold._

_Then, it started. A look of worry encapsulated his mother's features, and as his older brother released Caiellis he walked towards the woman, his apology forgotten._

"_Mum? You okay?" he inquired, starting to come to her side as he looked down at him, her eyes full of a saddening mixture of despair and horror. _

"_You aren't having him!" she screamed, the noise desperate and horrifying to Cai's ears, reminding him of a time when his mum had acted the same way. He froze. No, that couldn't be right. _Mum was never in that situation, me imagining her dying wasn't real – but I can think of it in so much detail...

"_Cai, stay where you are," the stern voice of his father broke through his shocked paralysis, panic flooding him as his image of a perfect family was beginning to shatter with his mother's desperate wailing. "What's happening to her?" he asked, about to tentatively take a step towards her._

"_I TOLD YOU TO STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" Marik bellowed, the sound full of fury, and fear crept up Cai's spine at the anger in his father's voice – it sounded like the man was going to hit him. "Alex, get your brother. Now!"_

_Cai felt strong hands grab his thin biceps, roughly hoisting the boy off his feet as he flailed, trying to get to his distressed mum, who was starting to glow with a malicious light and reached out towards him. He reached out his own arm as Alex let go of that and instead wrapped an arm around his lower chest, pulling him away from the loving and nurturing woman. Their fingertips brushed together, and the instant they did so Emili shattered, shards of iridescent stained glass exploding from what was her body and launching themselves in all directions in Caiellis's bedroom. One of them hit him, but instead of slicing the fragile flesh of his leg open it passed straight through, glinting with malevolent twilight._

"_Mum! Mum!" he shrieked, batting futilely at his brother's muscular arm, his tiny fists not moving the limb at all. Tears ran down his face as the last trace of Emili faded away, and he turned his head to the rest of his family – shock was covering all of their features as well, coupled with a grim inevitability that made his heart race in panic and fear. "What's happening?!"_

_Johnias's wife went next, detonating in the same way as his mother – Cai remembered with a jolt that he never actually knew the woman's name, and now that she had gone he couldn't visualise her face either. Despite their loves dying before their eyes, Marik and Johnias didn't seem that concerned for them, but as their gazes landed upon Cai he felt a bleak determination in their blue eyes, a determination to protect him at all costs. "Dad? Uncle Johnias? What is going on?"_

"_Don't worry, Caiellis. We aren't going to let them take you," Johnias said, ruffling his hair fondly and smiling reassuringly at him, although none of that showed in his eyes. To which Marik added: "Your uncle is right. You are safe with-"_

_Cai shrieked in despair as both men cracked and smashed apart, shards of glass cascading to the floor where the two brothers were stood. More tears ran down his face, and he pressed his face into his hands. _No...Why? Why did this have to happen? I was happy... I don't want to to go! I don't want _them_ to take me!

"_I'm not letting you go," Alex declared, squeezing his little brother tightly to his chest, determined to protect the younger boy from what was occurring. Cai couldn't breathe the larger boy was hugging so tightly, the air fighting to get into his lungs, but then the pressure on his chest eased and he landed with a bump on the floor._

"_ALEX!" he screamed, desperately grabbing at the fragments of his big brother, as if collecting the glass would allow him to rebuild the older boy, rebuild the illusion of happiness, but when his thin fingers touched the pieces they broke apart even more, millions of tiny shards cover the carpeted floor until even they dissolved into nothingness._

"_Alex..." he whimpered, scrunching up his hands into fists and punching the floor in anger, something he had never done before. Caiellis had never released his anger in a violent manner, instead directing it inwards where it festered and turned instead into self-loathing. That, or having a shouting match with someone, most likely his big brother. His big brother. The one who was gone. The feeling of warmth that had started when Hollie first called Alexander into the room and persisted even through the members of his perfect family shattering into pieces disappeared, and Caiellis was left feeling hollow as the rest of the room exploded around him, plunging him and his cousin into an abyss of darkness twinkling with the light of stars._

_He didn't know how they were floating, or where they were – they were defying the laws of physics that he knew of, they should have been falling, not sat in the same position as earlier. Then it finally hit him – it wasn't real. None of it was. The dream Caiellis had had earlier was reality, and the truth of that made him want to scream out in agony. Then that begged the question – who – or what – was Hollie? Cai looked at the girl, who gave a sad smile back and shook her head, before splintering into the slivers of crystal, following the fate that had befallen the rest of his "family". Her face was erased from his memory, as well as her name, but Cai would never forget the perfect family he had created in his mind._

.*.*.*.

Caiellis was thrust into an uncaring and harsh reality, stumbling forwards and slamming face-first into the ground. He tried to get up, the events of the day flooding back to him in painful clarity, but as he tried to use his left arm to push himself to his feet agonising pain erupted in the limb, making him gasp at the blossoming torment. He couldn't remember being injured in that area, but then he reasoned that anything could have happened while he was trapped in the dream realm. _Stupid! _Caiellis thought harshly, huge quantities of disappointment and guilt vying for control in his mind, but the prince removed them quickly.

Alex needed help; his brother must have taken the brunt of the vampire's wrath while he was stuck in happy-fantasy-land enjoying himself. Cai mentally cursed himself for letting his already exhausted brother go alone against the vampire, and used his right arm to hoist himself up, heavily favouring that side of his body as he already was aware of the damage to his leg. He found it both ironic and pathetic that he was busy worrying about minor wounds like these when his brother was in need of help, and, gritting his teeth, ignored the pain and made to get back to his feet, swiftly noting the position of his weapon, only a few metres to the left.

Caiellis wished he knew how long he had been comatose – the dream had only lasted about ten minutes at most, but that length of time didn't necessarily translate to the amount elapsed in reality – even so, ten minutes was an awfully long period to be left alone against a covetous and formidable vampiress. The boy lifted his head up, about halfway to standing up, and his breath caught in his throat.

"Alex!" the word rose unbidden from his mouth in a half-scream, half-gasp, and Caiellis felt like he wanted to vomit when his eyes landed on his older brother. He started to hyperventilate, panic and despair forcing his limbs into action. Alex was in a bad state. Cai could see that from here, the older boy covered in his own blood with numerous viscous wounds predominantly covering his chest. There were four men stood defensively next to his brother, two of them half-kneeling and pouring purifying White mana into the older boy, but it still didn't ease Cai's mind.

He cried out a choked sob of anguish and stumbled towards the position of the older boy. Huge fat tears, their size increasing as if they gorged upon his despair, rolled down the boy's cheeks, crackling with coruscating purple force when they touched the malignant birthmark of the Black Sun. Alexander looked dead; the teen's eyes squeezed shut as tears of his own spilled down his deathly pale face, although he was still locked within a painful unconsciousness, whimpering in pain and breathing heavily – _at least that means he is still alive_, the rational part of Caiellis's brain quipped before it's pragmatic voice was drowned in another wave of sorrow. _This is all my fault..._ Cai thought as his body was wracked by another sob, his mind unable to process his brother being as injured as he was – while he had seen the older boy wounded in the past, often having to patch up the more reckless teenager himself, none of them had ever been life-threatening.

Caiellis started to run closer, powerless to think about anything else but his brother, and tripped when he put weight on his wounded leg. A pair of gauntleted hands prevented his headlong fall, and Cai found his face buried in soft fabric covering a breastplate of hard metal instead of the ground. Tears blurred his vision, and the youngest prince tried to shove the person holding him away and continue on his quest to reach Alex's side, but a firm grip impeded his frantic movements and stopped him from harming himself further, one large arm hooked under his legs and the other wrapped around his back.

"Shh, Cai, everything is going to be fine," Tristram comforted, lightly stroking the boy's back and repeating the words over and over as small fists pounded at his armoured chest. After a few seconds of frustrated resistance, Caiellis stopped trying to remove the immovable object of the Guardian and pressed his face into the fabric, alternating between weakly crying his brother's name and sobbing. Tristram then said again, "Cai, your father is here fighting with Aksua, and Uncle Tybalt and Hierarch Aretis are healing your brother," he decided not to add that the older boy was in critical condition and desperately needed a medical facility, Cai would already be aware and he didn't want to frighten the young boy further, "So everything will be alright."

Caiellis wanted to scream that _"No, everything is not alright you idiot! My brother is going to die, and it's all my fault!" _But he knew that it wasn't Tristram's responsibility for the failure, and that the man was trying to calm him down. He just wished that his elders would stop trying to tell him that the situations in his life were fine when they clearly weren't. Only Alexander and his mum had ever been able to successfully pull that off with him. He wiped his eyes, his chest still hitching up and down and still wracked with stifled but still anguished mewls, and looked up into the stern face if the Guardian, who flashed a quick smile at the prince.

Tristram had heard the boy calling for his brother, spotting him waking up from his unnatural slumber and staggering towards them while the other Light-bearers were either too fixed on the stricken older prince or their battling monarch, who slowly paced around the abandoned village square that they had found the sons of Marik in, Aksua mirroring his actions like they were orbiting a common centre of fated gravity. Caiellis was pale, his leg was bleeding profusely onto the ground and his left arm was bruised painfully, twisted at an awful angle, but obviously the kid had ignored his own wounds in his need to get to Alexander. The ghost of a purple contusion still lingered on Cai's thin throat, the faded evidence of Tristram's shame in not being able to stop the abduction of the princes, a reminder that is was the boys' protectors' fault that Alex was now horribly injured.

"Is...is Alex going to be ok?" Cai asked, stammering the words in his panic and needing to get to his brother's side. The boy already knew the answer to the question, so instead Tristram ignored it, not wanting to lie to him but also not wanting to fracture the prince's delicate mental state even more. "Kiddo, I'm just going to do a temporary job on your wounds, then you can see your brother, ok?"

Caiellis nodded slowly, still trembling, a look of confusion briefly creasing his face (which looked incredibly young in the golden light of the Hierarchs' healing) as if he was only just remembering that he himself had also suffered injuries as well. It then turned into a pout when he came to the conclusion that this was just a further delay to ensuring Alexander was safe, and he deserved the pain anyway.

Tristram conjured up a small light, both so that he could better analyse the abuse the younger boy had suffered and aid in the nullification of the pain, although his healing magic was nowhere near strong enough to repair even minor cuts. He knew that Caiellis wasn't thinking clearly, the trauma of seeing his brother in that much danger slowing down his mental functions, otherwise he would have rejuvenated himself before getting to Alexander. The poor kid probably blamed himself for what happened, and while that was not entirely true Cai was partly at fault, but almost definitely not to the extent that he was beating himself up over.

The Guardian stifled a gasp when he saw just how much blood Caiellis had lost – yes, Alex had sustained heavy damage that was far more destructive than his little brother's, but that still didn't make the wounds look any better. He ripped off the cloth adorning the front of his breastplate with the entwined sigils of Capitalia Lux and the Blade of Wrath, creating a makeshift bandage around the boy's gushing calf. The man knew that wouldn't last long, and wished Marik would hurry up in his battle with their enemy so they could evacuate both Alex and his brother – the wench was using powerful shadow-magic to prevent the Airship's systems from working, otherwise they could have left by now – though he doubted that Aksua would let her prey just leave, and Marik would want vengeance for the damage done to his sons, not that he had noticed what had happened to Caiellis. He then tenderly prodded the boy's broken arm, noting his suppressed yelp of pain at the touch.

"Cai, I need to relocate the bones in your arm. This is going to hurt," he stated simply, wanting to give the boy warning of the incoming pain but knowing that it would be better to just get it over and done with before letting Cai worry about it. He spontaneously jolted the forearm back into place, grimacing at the boy's hiss of agony and feeling empathetic towards him, as he had often suffered similar injuries. He was immensely relieved that he had seen Caiellis, as if the boy had fallen over chances are he would have bled out while they were busy fussing over a critical Alexander. Tristram thought he had hurt the boy when he started crying again, but quickly realised that it was because he could see Alex with more clarity now that he was closer.

He carried the boy over and deposited him next to his older brother, ignoring the irritated glance Oleic cast over in his direction – the two thirty year olds were fierce rivals, wont to repeatedly challenging each other to duels. The Guardian of Civitas Sol usually made no attempts to disguise his dislike of the youngest prince unless he was actually in the presence of the Lucerna family themselves, which made Tristram despise the arrogant man even more, as he felt protective of both of the king's sons. Normally, Tristram would now have gone to help his king against the woman, but Marik had been very clear before he jumped off the Airship that none of them were to aid him in his battle. Tristram could easily have just disobeyed the order like he had in the past when the man occasionally let his pride blind him, but he had sensed that there were very real reasons behind the command, not just the need for vengeance.

Cai shuffled closer to his brother, Tybalt ensuring that he moved to accommodate the younger boy, knowing that preventing Caiellis from getting to the prone form of Alex even more would end in disaster – Tristram had already done enough. Aretis ignored the boy and hid a sneer of contempt – it was said that the Light-bearers of Civitas Sol had objected most to the young prince being allowed to live, as apart from Capitalia Lux their city had suffered the most under Xarius's reign of terror.

"Alex..." he sobbed, unable to say anything more than that and now truly realising the extent of his brother's injuries – the healing that Aretis and Uncle Tybalt were doing was just prolonging the inevitable, and Alex needed serious medical attention from professionals if he was to have any hope of surviving. He let his hands slide down his brother's arm until he found the hand, and gripped it tightly, his small fingers already slick with his brother's blood. Tybalt had to repress a smile – despite the fact that Alex was still making pained groans, the second his little brother made contact he calmed down, completely imperceptibly to anyone who had not known the boy his entire life, reacting positively to the presence of his little brother even though there was no way he could be aware of it.

"I'm sure Alex will be fine. He's a strong lad," Tybalt assured his youngest student, placing a wrinkled hand on the boy's shaking shoulder and subtly infusing the gesture with resolve-augmenting White mana – had they been in a situation less dire, Caiellis would have noticed the man's interference and asked him why he thought it necessary to bolster his emotional state, but since the boy hadn't noticed it was obviously the right choice, especially judging the fact that he was no longer hyperventilating, though Tybalt didn't know whether to attribute that to his magic or the contact with his brother.

Truth be told, he was significantly concerned by the drastically deteriorating health of the older boy – the blood that was pumping out from various wounds was starting to become thicker and more like tar, indicating a deep corruption taking hold, and the boy began violently coughing up oily blood. The purifying enchantments of the Hierarchs were the only bulwarks against complete and utter takeover of the virus-like curse, and even their walls of mana were beginning to crack under the tide of impurity that was jeopardizing the teenager's life.

"H-he d-didn't d-deserve...w-why...?" Cai stuttered, trying to hold back more tears but failing miserably. The boy was going into shock, in spite of Tybalt using magic and words to try to reassure him, and his words came out in snivels. "M-my fault...I should have...h-helped. I s-should have been hurt instead."

"Look, Caiellis, you couldn't have done anything. And Alexander will prefer it this way, he would have been saying the exact same if the situation was reversed." Tybalt said sternly, using strictness where soothing tones had failed.

"...failure of a brother," Cai muttered bitterly, before pulling Alex's limp forearm up and hugging it tightly, dead set on making sure nothing else would harm the older boy further on this disastrous night, but it seemed he had calmed down after seeing his older brother in such a state. Still continuing the channel his magical energy into the losing battle of Alexander's purity, Tybalt let his eyes stray to where his king was busying combating the greatest threat – he understood now why Marik had ordered that none of the others interfere, as this Aksua was immensely powerful and would make a mockery of any attempt at teamwork. The king needed to hurry up so that they could take Alex back to the city and get him proper help from trained healers and medical staff – even that wouldn't be a guarantee of his survival, but there was son chance of the boy living if they remained here.

.*.*.*.

"You will pay for what you have done to them, bitch," Marik spat, sending Akroma to rush at the vampire, the angel's gargantuan sword obliterating the ground with a thunderous impact fuelled by Marik's cold anger. The angel's perfect features were impassive apart from a glimmer of contempt in her forbidding eyes, and she attacked again, charging her holy weapon with milky light and swinging it in a wide arc that Aksua had to leap away from. She was met by the king, his own greatsword drawn and thrumming with mystical potency, and formed twin blades of pure darkness herself to block his blade for a single second before morphing into shadow as a blast of light was shot out by the Angel of Wrath.

"Marik-Sweetie, you are more impatient than I remember," Aksua taunted, ramming a shard of blackness into the back of Akroma before fading away again. The angel scowled and released White mana in a pulse around her, slamming her sword into the ground and loudly singing the words of a hymn. A shriek of pain could be heard and the vampire tumbled out of the darkness a few metres away, trails of smoke coming from her hair.

"Maybe that has something to do with the fact that I have to kill you to allow Alex to get help," Marik snarled as Aksua flipped back to her feet, standing up to her full height and looking haughtily back at the king and his First Sisterhood angel. A glint of amusement made it's way into her alluring brown eyes, although she wasn't trying to seduce Marik – her charm would have no effect on the furious monarch. "Oh don't be silly, I'm not stopping you from leaving."

A moment of hesitancy made the king narrow his eyes, and although he knew he should be trying to kill the vampire he sarcastically shot back: "Then I suppose it isn't you creating the shadows preventing the Airship's movement?"

"No, why would I want to trap a vengeful king in with me. You aren't as attractive as you used to be, and Alex is basically dead anyway," she smirked maliciously at Marik's smouldering glower. _She raises a fair point,_ the king thought for a second, before stamping the doubt out, it she was probably just saying it to get him to delay so she could regain her power – it would be in her best interests to fill her opponent with doubt, and lying would be one of the best ways to do it.

"Although," Aksua lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, though it still carried through the abyss, the words sounding like the vampire was stood right next to him, "I wouldn't be against making Alex a vampire and saving his life for you."

"The king is not going to be swayed by your lies, vampire-scum," Akroma bellowed, launching another assault, this one of bolts of light that arced through the air.

Cai watched the engagement fearfully, although at this distance he could only hear what Akroma was saying, the resonance if the heavenly angel's voice piercing through the darkness and filling all the Lucaelians' hearts with conviction. As the vampire and his father traded more blows, the hated Aksua switching her weapons from two malevolent swords to a large scythe, not unlike Orzhova's before Caiellis infused it with White mana in his Summoning ritual. His father fought so much like him, methodically gaining an advantage through a series of precise and well-thought out strikes that forced Aksua into an unfavourable position.

However, he perceived elements of his older brother's fighting style in their dad's over aggression and spontaneous impatience that often let him catch the vampire off guard. For the first time since finally seeing the man again after the civil war, Cai felt a small swell of admiration for his father, before that was consumed by the sadness he felt over Alex's horrific wounding. The boy coughed up some more sticky black phlegm, shuddering in torment, and Caiellis brushed tears of agony from his brother's face, as the older boy had often done to him in the past.

Aksua was getting panicked, a mixture of anxiety and dread running through her functionally immortal body as she realised she was soon going to lose the battle – Marik's relentless attacks gave her no quarter, no room to properly manoeuvre and regain the advantage. She knew she couldn't just morph into shadow again – Akroma was ready to purge the area if the vampire tried it again; she had been fortunate to only have some of her hair incinerated by the blast. The vampire blasted a huge wall of wriggling darkness at the king and somersaulted backwards.

Snarling, her face losing it's beauty and becoming something altogether more sinister and terrifying, Aksua called Nocturon into her, her shadowy horror pulsating into her body from her open mouth, wriggling through her veins and corrupting the stolen blood within – this technique had been taught to her by the Perverter of Truth, augmenting her power massively but also coming at a terrible price – the immortality she had gained through the consumption of vast quantities of blood would be rendered null, meaning that she would have to feed again after this battle – but Aksua didn't care.

Her bones began to crack as Nocturon expanded, her eyes filled with darkness and her beautiful hair falling out in clumps. She shrieked in agony as the horror twisted her from the inside, forcing her to vomit out near-solid blobs of murk that throbbed to the sound of a malignant heartbeat. Her once slender-body expanded at a huge rate, the skin becoming swollen and almost breaking at the horror seethed within her, drinking greedily upon her essence to empower itself. Writhing tendrils of darkness burst out from her back, the sound of tearing skin horrifying to behold as they pushed her off the ground, elevating her undulating and bloated body above the floor and suspending Aksua like a puppet controlled by the strings of an invisible master. The analogy was not lost on the vampire, who screamed in pain and tried to revert the spell, regain her original form as her mind dipped further into insanity, but Nocturon gleefully silenced her mana-fuelled protestations with a roar of dark desires made manifest.

And then, Akroma was in front of her, the angel's pitiless voice full of hatred and abhorrence, perfectly enunciating the syllables of a purification spell, one of the most destructive. The angel had recognised the vile powers of a greater demon, one she had often fought in Sancturia in the endless wars between the armies of light and dark – Seizan, the Perverter of Truth. Aksua screeched in mindless fury when she deduced that she had been tricked – her demonic patron had given her the spell so that he could claim her soul fully if she ever used it, and the vampire silently cursed him as her personality was dissolved, gobbled up by Nocturon, the malevolent horror nestling in her body and sending Aksua to her death.

"Marik! I require you aid to enact the Vengeance," Akroma announced austerely, her authoritarian tone reminding the king of the one he often utilised on disobedient subjects (or sons) and brooking no dissent, so Marik did as he was told and provided the angel with a large chunk of mana. The thing that had been Aksua screeched, the noise cutting through the air and forcing every Lucaelian to cover their ears, more tendrils of questing shadow-substance bursting out of the vampire's body and hurtling towards the many meals available. Marik hacked apart the tentacle that tried to crush him into a pulp, seeing Tristram Summon his guardian angel Athela of the Aegis, a large shield of mana encapsulating the king's sons and making the tendrils bounce off as the angel used her glaive to cut them apart.

The ones that tried to get close to Akroma immediately dissipated as a golden light began to surround the Angel of Wrath, a blinding intensity that made Marik want to instinctively look away despite a Summoner always being immune to the spells of the Summoning (apart from a few exceptions). Cai covered his eyes as the light became too much, gripping Alex's hand tightly as he sensed a gargantuan increase in mana from his father's angel, matching and then eclipsing the energy abomination that was Aksua was filled with.

Marik looked on with a mixture of awe, terror and self-pride as Akroma focussed all the magical potency into her huge sword, the blade beginning to shine with an incandescent light. Even though he had seen the Vengeance before, having used it many times during the civil war against traitorous generals that had aligned themselves with the Arch-Heretic, his angel's finishing still captured a sense of awful wonder from the king. The spell was one that was filled with her utter abhorrence of Black mana itself (Marik was no stranger to the fact that Akroma actively despised Cai's Orzhova), a cold fury powering hatred that no White creature should ever be able to feel.

Cai heard a shout of pure hatred and an undulating shriek, but still couldn't open his eyes to see what was happening. Akroma shot towards the horror that Aksua had become, screaming her loathing of the abomination in an extremely rare display of emotion, and swung her sword. It smashed apart the creature's feeble block, slamming into not-Aksua with a calamitous discharge of thunderous energy that shook the earth. Caiellis saw light even with his eyes snapped shut and a hand covering them, and moved protectively in front of Alexander, despite knowing that their father would never willingly hurt them.

When the light faded, and Cai tentatively opened his eyes, there was no trace of Aksua, and Akroma sheathed her sword with a dispassionate flourish, as if the angel had exhausted the amount of emotion she was allowed to show in a certain time period and had to go back to being detached and aloof. He felt awe encompass his thoughts as the shield Athela had created faded away – Akroma had absolutely annihilated every particle of Aksua.

"And so is the fate of all those who sell their soul to demons," the angel bellowed, abruptly returning back inside of Marik as the king ran towards Alex.

* * *

><p><em>Also, apparently I lied about not doing another chapter until after Christmas. Sorry if Cai seemed a bit weak or pathetic, but trust me after a few scenes in the next chapter we will be seeing plenty more of strong and determined Caiellis.<em>


	17. The Pains of Recovery

_Because I like timelines:_

_Day One: Chapters 2-5_

_Day Three: Chapter 6_

_Day Four: Chapters 7 & 8_

_Day Five: Chapters 9-12_

_Day Six: Chapters 13-Present_

Marik shot towards his stricken son as Tybalt frantically commanded Oleic and Tristram (however only the former did so) to go to the Airship, as neither Hierarch could leave Alex's side without the corruption overwhelming the boy's fragile resistance. The king grimly assessed the awful state of his eldest, not wanting to move him and cause his son more pain but knowing that he would have to. Aretis bowed his head and moved to the side, all sarcasm and arrogance gone in the face of the prince's wounding, and Marik hooked one arm under his son's legs and the other behind his chest, lifting the teenager off the ground. The boy gasped in pain, coughing up some more of the tar-like substance, and Marik noted how Caiellis tenderly soothed the older boy, wiping him with a bit fabric that he had torn off from his own clothes (which the king noticed were of Welkalite design), tears appearing at the corner of his eyes also.

Cai glanced up at his father, getting to his feet also and disregarding how faint he felt, but the man didn't look back, his austere features intently focussed on the Yentarian vehicle a couple of hundred metres away. A shudder of fear went down the boy's spine as he realised just how scared his father was, as although the king was putting on a brave face he was clearly terrified of losing his older son's life. He let go of Alex's hand as their dad began to swiftly carry him away, feeling as if he should remain next to his older brother but thinking that he would probably just get in the way, as he had done his entire life.

Tristram ran alongside the desperate father and magically-attuned Light-bearers, the need to protect Alexander burning strong within his breast as well, when he detected something strange. He abruptly turned around and his eyes landed upon the youngest Lucerna, who stood in the darkness, alone. Caiellis looked pale and lost, fragile like an abandoned child, and the Guardian's heart ached for the kid. He quickly made his way to the boy, grabbing his shoulders and forcefully, but still gently, leading him in the direction of the Airship.

"Come on," he encouraged, half-carrying the boy back to the vehicle as he stumbled. The bandage around his leg needed to be replaced, the white cloth now stained a deep crimson, but both Lucaelians knew it could wait until they ensured that Alex was safe.

Only a few seconds after the king and the Hierarchs embarked, Tristram and Caiellis clanged up the ramp and into the main deck. Oleic had managed to input the correct instructions to release a temporary medical bay, and Marik was currently in the process of manoeuvring his son onto it with Aretis's help, trying not to cause the boy any more torment than was necessary. The facility was not sufficient to fully cure Alexander, but could at least aid in stabilising his condition in the short journey to Civitas Sol, where the city's Guardian had already contacted the doctors and healers. Tristram may despise the other warrior, but while they disagreed on almost everything the Capitalia Lux Guardian had to admire the man's precise organisational skills.

Marik ran his fingers through his son's spiky blonde hair, so much like his own, to comfort his half-conscious eldest, who alternated between whimpers and gasps, as well as check for any potential fractures. Satisfied, he began to use some of the bandages that came out of a compartment to the left of the bed, to see if he could stem the bleeding of some of the more brutal wounds – he knew that they would have to remove them so that Alex could be purified of the vampire's curse, but the boy was laying in his own blood as the rapidly blackening scarlet liquid poured out onto the bed.

The man instantly spun around when he heard footsteps behind him, and sighed in relief when it was only Tristram and a distant-looking and frightened Caiellis. His mind suddenly came to the awareness that he had totally forgotten about his youngest, as the boy wasn't as injured as his older sibling but would still be terrified by the turn of events. Marik's blue eyes met Tristram's, and the Guardian nodded his head solemnly as the king's orbs conveyed his gratitude.

Cai's gaze then met his – the younger boy looked scared, but his green irises were filled with guilt and Marik was sure he hadn't entirely managed to keep an accusatory glint out of his stare. He steeled himself – there would be time to talk about things like that later, but right now his eldest needed his help, and Caiellis gratefully nodded his understanding. Marik reminded himself that as well as battling with Aksua, his sons had escaped from Usnaan within a day, so would be exhausted – highlighted aptly by the gloomy bangs underneath Cai's expressive eyes that looked ten times larger in his sadness, making him look more like a five year old than a..._wait, what am I thinking? He looks exactly like a _thirteen_ year old should._

He cast a furious glance into the pilot chamber when the Airship rocked, juddering as it set off and making Alex's head almost slam into the metal wall beside the bed, which it would have done if Marik wasn't still subconsciously stroking his hair. Evidently the vampire had been lying about not preventing them from leaving, and as he suspected the Airship was able to take off without her interference. Marik pondered getting something to cover up his son's bare chest with, but as his hands moved over the boy's abs Alex cried out in pain. The king gently prodded, realising that many of his son's ribs were broken and would be causing him a lot of pain, although there was nothing to be done about that apart from waiting for them to heal.

Alexander coughed and spluttered more of the viscous black liquid that would no doubt be clogging his lungs, and Marik suddenly decided that he would be better off sat up.

"Caiellis," he said, and his youngest snapped to attention, "You and Tristram help me move Alex to sit up, in order to clear his airways so he can breathe better."

The younger boy nodded for a second, then confusion creased his youthful face.

"Wait, won't that just damage his ribs more?" he asked, "I didn't," his voice took on a melancholy ring, the tone infused with self-loathing, "_see_ Aksua break them, so I don't know how damaged they are, but is making him sit up really worth the pain?"

"You of all people should know how unpleasant it is to have your oxygen cut off," Marik replied, and Cai's face fell as he remembered the fateful events that had led to this – it was his weakness that had caused the brothers to be kidnapped, just as it was his weakness that had allowed Alexander to get hurt. "Plus, if we do it properly he won't feel much."

Cai, his dad and the Capitalia Lux Guardian went to hoist him up, but when the older boy whimpered in pain and groaned loudly at the strain on his broken ribcage, Caiellis backed away.

"I can't do it..." he whispered, looking up at his frustrated father and feeling disgusted with himself, but he wasn't able to be the cause of any more of his big brother's suffering. Marik glowered for a second and sighed exasperatedly, "Fine. Tristram and I shall do it ourselves. Make yourself useful and try to find some rubbing alcohol, something to numb the pain. While Tybalt and Aretis are healing him, they are mostly concentrating on stopping the advance of the corruption, and so your brother will still be in immense pain."

"How long until we reach Civitas Sol?!" he roared when Caiellis started opening different drawers in a frantic search for something to ease Alexander's agony. He hadn't actually meant to shout the words, but agitation for his son had twisted the question into a shout that made him sound terrifying.

"Approximately five minutes, lord," Oleic answered, his voice level. "Make it three!" Marik shouted back when his son let out another groan of pain, hacking up some more black blood. His eyes promptly opened, the startled blue orbs full of confusion and pain, glazed over like he had a fever – Marik didn't discount the possibility of that, but they presently had more pressing concerns.

"Alex, we are on the way back to Civitas Sol. You are in a grave state, but with the help of professionals I'm sure you'll pull through," Marik informed him, and then, wishing he hadn't been so cold or dispassionate, added: "I'm proud of what you did today – escaping from Welkas within a day! You are a strong lad, and although I know you're in a lot of pain but we will help you get through it."

The boy started to nod but stopped when it was unnecessarily painful – he couldn't recall his neck being injured, but then again pain was periodically sweeping through his entire body. He felt really weak, and Alex knew he would fade back into unconsciousness soon so made sure to get his priorities right before he did so. Marik saw the boy's lips moving, though no sound came out, and asked: "Are you having trouble breathing? Is there anything we can do?"

Alex shook his head – yes, his lungs and throat felt like they were on fire but the fact that he was sat up was relieving some of the strain on his congested airways, and he needed to do something before he was dragged back into the realm of sleep. It was irritating that he couldn't speak, so tried again.

"Cai..." a weak whisper that sounded alien to Alexander's ears emerged from his mouth, and he silently cursed at how pathetic he sounded. He couldn't argue with the fact that he needed help, he just wished that his dad, Tybalt, Tristram and Aretis weren't all looking at him like he was a broken doll – he didn't want their sympathy, though he knew it was going to get worse when they got to the City of the Sun. The prince resolved to suck it up – yes, he may feel like his privacy was being breached but it was necessary for his recovery, and once he had recovered he could continue to protect his little brother.

From the other side of the passenger compartment, there was no way little Caiellis should have heard his brother's faint words; Marik had barely done so himself, but the boy's father gave a wry smile as his youngest's ears visibly pricked up from underneath his mop of dark hair. He stopped his frantic rummaging, selecting one of the medicine bottles and carrying it over to his older brother. Cai handed his father the rubbing alcohol and gently eased his brother's larger hand into his two.

"Please don't leave me Alex. I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you," he murmured out next to his brother's ear, tears once again surfacing in his wide eyes. Alexander fought to console his brother, tell him that he would never leave him even if the younger boy wanted him to, but he lacked the strength – he seemed to be getting weaker by the second. Instead, he managed to give a feeble wink in his little brother's direction. Marik watched on until that point, when he had to look away to compose himself, fighting to get himself under control again – his sons certainly didn't need him acting weak as well. The bond between his children was the strongest he had ever seen, even in the amount of pain his eldest was in, his first thought was still to comfort his younger sibling.

It seemed to affect Caiellis as well, but instead of being the catalyst for a fresh flood of tears the boy controlled himself, mustering up all his courage and self-control and giving his brother the most determined look he could come up with. Alexander needed to see him alright before he worried about himself, and so he would need to be strong, for his big brother's sake if not for his own.

"Alex. I'm not going to leave you," he declared, and the addressed almost thought he was going to stamp his foot in verification of the pronouncement – though he hadn't done that for many, many years.

The delirium of the vampire's magic was affecting him deeply, it seemed – Cai's battered but innocent visage was repeatedly replaced by one from their childhood, a much younger Caiellis superimposed over his brother's current state. He steeled himself, whether his little brother looked four or thirteen he would still be there to comfort him, and slowly and painfully moved his hand upwards. Sensing his brother's intent, Caiellis snorted quietly and bowed his head, allowing the hand to be placed atop his mop of brown hair, which his brother ruffled weakly. Had the scene taken place anywhere else, Marik would have found it quite funny, but now he could only think of it as extremely heart-warming.

He slipped back into the world of dreams, glad that he had at least been able to console Caiellis a tiny bit. His younger brother removed Alexander's hand from his head and then resumed squeezing it tightly, as Marik moved forwards to rub some of the numbing medicine onto the gaping wound in his eldest's chest, the one that had been inflicted when Aksua came to terms with that fact that her coveted prize would be denied.

After two more minutes of torture that felt like years for the king as his son's state worsened every second, Oleic outdoing himself, the Airship roughly landed, sending shuddering vibrations through all of them. The ramp burst open and a small team of medical staff instantaneously appeared at the bottom, attired in golden and warded uniforms that would protect them from potential corruption. Marik once again lifted his son into his arms, transferring him into a stretcher that one of the staff quickly wheeled round. Apart from a nod of reverence and respect the team gave him, no gestures or supplications were shown to the king – for that, he was extremely glad, as they were obviously trained enough to be more concerned about their patient than their ruler.

The operatives got to the side of the stretcher and started moving as fast as they could go without it being too dangerous, efficiently shooting down inside a large and ornate building adorned with the golden sun symbol of Civitas Sol and the Alpha Helix of the Ordo Medella, the order of healing that combined advances in technology with age-old magic to provide some of the greatest physicians the world had ever seen. Lucael wasn't a kingdom of barbarians, they didn't just solely utilise magic in a vain attempt to cure the afflicted like the Erian Conclave, but still understood the significance and power of rejuvenating spells so refused to rely on technology entirely, as with the Yentarian Republic.

Tristram could have snorted at his fellow Guardian's choice of landing – Oleic had literally dumped the vehicle onto one of the large balconies in the Ordo Medella's hospital in the City of the Sun. Marik charged alongside the stretcher and his eldest, the Hierarchs and Guardians on his heels, and Cai tried to run and keep up but instead trotted quickly as sprinting hurt too much – the wound on his leg was violently throbbing, and the bandage that Tristram had wrapped round it had stuck using the blood and was now in the process of painfully unravelling. Once again he ignored the pain and followed the party into a large room full of medical equipment, some of which he knew but others that he didn't, that were in the middle of being hooked and inserted into his brother. Alexander usually hated needles, but right now he really wasn't in the position to complain even if he was conscious.

"My lord, I need you to move from the operating theatre please," a clinical and stern voice ordered, and Marik furiously turned from his eldest son to the face of a grizzled doctor that reminded him quite a bit of his late father. The king stated: "He's my son. My place is by-."

"With respect, lord," the man interrupted, his authoritarian voice cutting out the king's emotional one and making Caiellis almost want to snigger if his brother wasn't so injured, "You are just going to get in the way, and time is of the essence if we are to save your son."

Marik looked as if he was about to protest again, before Tristram strode across the room and bodily dragged the older man towards a selection of chairs that would allow him to observe without obstructing the surgeons. The king pouted as he was forced into a chair, although his blue eyes showed that he was grateful for his battle brother removing him before he started an argument – he knew full well that he wouldn't be able to help the doctors.

Cai, who had stood in the doorway, crossed the threshold into the brightly, almost oppressively lit room (the boy already was aware that it would aid the Ordo members in their work, but it didn't make it any more inviting), sitting down next to his father, who didn't look up. His thin fingers reached out, almost instinctively grasping at his dad's hand before he pulled them away just as they were about to make contact, mulling over whether his desire for comfort was a good enough reason to break the man out of his silent reverie of intently staring at the operation, and deciding that it wasn't. Alex should be the focus of their dad's attention, the man shouldn't have to look after Cai, the one who had failed to protect his own brother – besides, his brother could die any second, despite him wanting to avoid the thought, so it was right that their father was concentrating on the older boy.

A fresh wave of guilt threatened to overwhelm him, and the boy huddled his thin knees up to his chest, wrapping small arms around them and staring at the frantic operation, one part of his mind wishing for Alex to stand up, tease him in that way that was so damn annoying but lovable at the same time, and embrace him in a bone-crushing hug, while the other coldly informed it that there was no possibility of that – even if his brother did survive the surgical intervention, he would probably drift between states of consciousness, though Caiellis was sure Alexander would still try to comfort him at his own expense.

His big brother didn't deserve to be hurt: he was the kindest, most selfless person in Cai's world, constantly looking out for and protecting his little brother, shoving away his own fears to better combat the youngest prince's. It was all so painfully logical to the thirteen year old, agonising clarity erupting in his mind – the reason the older boy was hurt was because Alexander was strong enough to push aside his concerns and sacrifice himself for him, while Cai had been too weak to do the same. Despite only remembering fragments of his illusion of a flawless family, Cai could recall with complete transparency that his big brother was the only member of the Lucerna family that had remained exactly the same: Emili had been alive while she was now dead; Marik had been happy and warm whereas in reality he was consumed by grief and cold; Johnias had been contented and loving whilst presently he was a horrific betrayer and brutal murderer; the unknown girl that had been his cousin birthed into the dream world when she really didn't exist – even through all that, Alexander's interpretation was identical to the real Alexander, staying his protector, best friend and the person he looked up to most. And now he was dying, and it was all because he was too weak to protect him, too fucking pathetic to guard the most precious thing in his short life.

"I'm sure your brother will be up and annoying the crap out of you soon," a voice, mostly stern but tinted with a glimmer of sympathy and love, snapped through his mind, and Cai looked up from where he had buried his head in his knees, shaking his head to get rid of the tears in his eyes and abruptly realising that they were cascading down his face, reacting with the Lucernan birthmark on his cheek in a riotous display of purple light, in spite of the fact that Caiellis couldn't call upon a drop of mana – he idly wondered why it did that, and resolved to ask Orzhova the next time he visited her, before pushing his mind out of the cycle of pointless thoughts and muses it often got into when something significant was occurring.

He glanced up, rubbing his eyes in a way that made him seem even younger, and was pleasantly surprised to see his father looking down at him, having expected one of his Uncles. The corners of the man's lips were almost imperceptibly twisted upwards, making his attempted parental smile look more like a grimace, while his large arm hesitantly moved around Caiellis's worryingly thin shoulders, hovering above them, not wanting to scare his youngest and remembering how he had reacted the first time he had tried physical contact with the boy after the war.

Marik's eyes systematically flicked between his eldest and youngest sons, simultaneously checking on the condition of both of them, but were filled with a paternal love that his uncharacteristically awkward actions could not capture. Cai felt more sadness flow through him despite the rare gesture of kindness and intimacy, and, sparing his father from the indecision of whether or not to touch his son by pushing his head into the man's muscled chest, a reassuring sensation that he had not felt since he was four rushing through him but still not pushing away the guilt, terror and sadness.

"Caiellis Noctis Lucerna. You never cease to surprise me," he said, hugging the boy close in what would have been an uncomfortable way had Cai not had to constantly deal with it from his older brother. He had been prepared for the younger boy to shy away, thoroughly taken aback by Caiellis's need for comfort. The man smiled as he enunciated the syllables of the boy's name – while Alexander had been picked by his mother, Caiellis had been chosen by the father. He still remembered the beautiful woman rolling her eyes in that attractive way when he told her the names he had come up with (though he supposed that Thaliecia wasn't the best female name he could have selected), jokingly saying: _"__Trust you to pick something over-complicated and sophisticated. I should never have promised to let you choose the name of our second child when I told you I was having them."_

She had laughed even more when he had told her that there was no actual meaning behind the names, he had just come up with them and liked how they were pronounced. Neither could deny that it fitted with his middle name though: the first-born of every Lucerna ruler inherited the middle name of the monarch (Ensis for Marik and Alexander, which had also been the surname of his mother) whilst the second-born received the family name of their other parent as their own middle name. Subsequent children would have theirs picked from the vast range available from their ancestors in the Lucerna family, although understandably the most popular choice throughout the ages for a third child had been Ortus, middle name of the founder, though it was generally frowned upon to have more than two children – logic dictated that two was the perfect number, as there was a back up in case one was assassinated or the Death Vision of the preceding ruler chose a child that would be detrimental as a ruler, whilst still not too many to train in the ways of ruling.

Though being crowned king definitely did not mean that the person would be any more successful than their siblings – one tale that was often told was of two Lucerna brothers, Jaceon and Taris – the latter had become king, content to rule over the kingdom and maintain it, while his brother had taken the armies far out, carving out huge swathes of territory, destroying many nations that also resided in the darkness and used Black mana, eventually becoming more famous than the king. Marik remembered arguing with his brother (and more rarely his father) about that, debating that while Jaceon may have conquered new territories, expanding the kingdom, it had been his brother that maintained these cities, bringing them into the fold and ensuring that they didn't revolt, but of course he had been forgotten while his brother hogged all the glory.

As well as inheriting his mother's family name, Caiellis had evidently also derived his physical build from her – thin, with dark green eyes and wavy/curly brown hair, though he still had the high cheekbones of Marik whereas Alex had gained the more open features of Emili. He had often thought about Caiellis not receiving the traditional body structure of the Lucerna line – the hair and eye colour didn't matter, but the fact that he was small and thin instead of naturally tall and muscular could prove to have a negative effect on his combat abilities, before reminding himself of the few but still prominent rulers that had done extremely well without that.

This included Queen Arie, who seemed to be his youngest's inspiration - that was why he was glad he had chosen the sword, as after that he decided to read every single piece of work his children had ever written (that still survived after the war, Tybalt had jokingly lamented losing precious pieces of work on the run from demons) he soon realised that Caiellis had studied each Lucerna ruler in great detail, and choosing the wise and very intelligent queen over some of the other rulers (such as Matalis) spoke volumes about his son's personality. Alex hadn't selected an inspiration, but then Marik doubted the more practically orientated brother had the patience to pore over all the material his little brother had.

He still could recall a young Caiellis using his matter-of-fact tone and telling his mother that his father and brother were nice things to hug because they weren't bony like her, though he had found that incredibly contradictory (although Caiellis wouldn't really have understood what he was saying) when one considered that he had spent half the time clung to the woman – though he reasoned that he would put his youngest down after a few minutes as he had to attend to some duty or another kingly necessity, while his big brother would have probably irritated and teased him.

He glanced over to the chronometer in his pocket, sighing loudly when he saw that only a single minute had passed since they entered the room – the surgeons would only just be starting the operation, and Marik noticed how while two of them were equipped with numerous instruments, a third was busy leafing through a prayer book. Being able to access magic was required for most members of the Ordo Medella, and this one was clearly going to use purification spells to facilitate the removal of the vampire's curse.

Marik was extremely proud of his eldest son, surviving through all of those wounds that would kill a lesser person twice over – he doubted Caiellis, with his much more fragile body, would have lived. Alexander was the perfect son – kind, intelligent, loyal, determined, nurturing to his younger sibling, strong and tough, and most of all more than willing to sacrifice himself for others. He had a fantastic and loving personality, much like his late mother, while he still looked more like his father. He sometimes wished that Caiellis would be more like his brother, although Alexander didn't have to contend with Black mana in his body. The day his first son had been born was one of the happiest in his entire life, only rivalled by Caiellis's birth (despite the fact that the Angel of the Black Sun had selected him as her second Summoner, causing tumultuous uproar throughout the kingdom and making the night far more ominous) and his marriage. It had been sunny, golden rays of angelic light cascading over the hospital and illuminating the crying baby's face in a holy glow. Aurelia visited only a few hours after the boy's birth, and the day was a cause for celebration.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I just want Alex back! I'm sorry!" young Caiellis bawled into his father's solid chest, clenching and unclenching his tiny fists and violently brushing the tears out of his eyes. _Alright, that's enough_ Marik thought, extricating his son from him and putting the boy back into his seat, though he still tried to keep the motions gentle. He found it so hard to do this – being a father had never come naturally to him, but after eight years of it Marik had thought that he was finally becoming a good one. That had been just before Johnias had his wife killed, and in the nine years the king had often worried that the atrocities he had seen and the grief he felt would make him forget how to be a proper father to his sons, aptly highlighted by causing his already small youngest's self-esteem to drop so low as to make him want to hurt himself. Just comforting Caiellis evidently wasn't working, so he switched to be more stern.

"I'm not the one you should be apologising to," he replied evenly, lifting up his son's chin and forcing the boy to look into his eyes, which would almost certainly be marred with accusation. He was disappointed in the boy, succumbing to Aksua's dream-magic and leaving his older brother alone to get hurt. Should Alexander survive his ordeal, (Marik harshly told himself to stop entertaining the notion that his eldest wouldn't), he would have very, _very_ serious words with Caiellis, but if the older boy didn't then he wouldn't – his younger son would be broken if Alexander died, needing all the comforts of his father if he was to survive, although Marik didn't think he would be able to give him them. He wasn't sure he'd be able to get over his own grief if his precious eldest didn't pull through; Marik sincerely hoped both his children would outlive him, seeing another member of his family die (apart from one) would end him.

Caiellis nodded slowly, and took a few deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling in a calming pattern that allowed him to regain control again, and pulled fully away from his father, guilt and shame once again burning in his mind. His green orbs flicked to the operation, followed by the turning of his head. Two of the order members were inserting a large needle into his brother's chest – Cai had read about the device before, knowing it was used both for the extraction of blood and to allow the magic of the users to penetrate into the deeper corruption within their patient and expunge it in a very painful procedure.

"Angels of Sancturia, we beseech thou, lend us thy aid so that we may cleanse this Lucerna child of the filth of darkness, bless us with thy holy magic so that we may commence the purification," a woman's voice, clear and strong, rang out, and Cai looked on as the Ordo member holding the tome began to be suffused with holy light. She then began to say another line, however this one was entirely in the ancient language that had been spoken in Matalis's time. The boy could only understand broken passages of it, occasionally catching a stray word that meant something to him.

Sure, he understood a lot more of it than most other people, but while phrases of the language were used in everyday life (such as Ave Lux, which translated to "For the light!") the writing was very complex and archaic, and as such only a few people devoted their time to truly studying it. Whereas combat magic, Summoning and some less powerful forms of healing spells required mental power and mana to prosecute, the harder to use healing magic requisitioned the appropriate words and ritual to use to its fullest extent, needing a lifetime to fully learn. That was why Caiellis had been forced to abandon learning the magic of repairing, as he didn't have enough time to learn that, the warfare magic and Summoning rituals, though his healing was as powerful it could get without devoting his life to it. He found it a bit worrying however that when he Summoned, the White and Black magic combined to heal solely himself in an intensely selfish manner, extracting life from other beings in order to help himself.

After a few seconds into the procedure, Alexander woke up again, and screamed. He thrashed and shouted in pain as the machinery simultaneously sucked out some of his polluted blood and poured curing magics into his body that began to burn out the corruption. He shrieked in panic, knocking one of the orderlies away from him in his desperate resistance, the sucking sensation making him think that he was back with Aksua, back with the vampire gorging on his blood. The operation was making him relive his most recent nightmare, sending hysteria pounding through his head as he tried to push the vampire away.

"_You're going nowhere, handsome._"

"Hold him down!" the lead medic, the one who had argued with Marik earlier, shouted, and the Medella operatives moved to the prince's side, restricting his movements in an attempt to prevent his from disrupting the operation. There was a rapid increase in mana, Alex's magic responding to his need for freedom in a destructive flash and sending the medics sprawling.

"_Give in. You know you want to. Give in to me, and I'll make your last moments as pleasurable as possible._"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Alex screamed, releasing more mana around him and gripping the needle stuck into him tightly, trying desperately to pull it away. Luckily, although the detonation of mana had been unexpected, the boy was still extremely weak, and the medics could quickly return to his side. Even so, he still managed to dislodge the needle, moving it an awkward angle as it scraped his skin as he tried to pull it out. Through all of that, the chanting of the surgeon-priest had not stopped – she seemed to increase her volume, the hymnals cutting through the boy's panicked screaming.

"_You taste as good as you look, pretty boy._"

Caiellis stood up from his seat and walked straight into the operating theatre, his eyes determined and fixed upon his stricken brother, who was still trying to remove the needle. Another explosion of flames erupted from him, forcing the surgeons to retreat to avoid being burned. Cai strode through them, nothing, _nothing, _would stop him from getting to his brother. He smiled – even in his panicked state, Alex's fire still didn't harm his little brother, and Cai appeared at his sibling's side completely undamaged.

"Alex," he said, softly, and could have cried when his older brother's eyes met his. "Stop resisting, please. We are trying to help you. I'm sorry."

The pitifully depressed look of surrender in Alexander's eyes broke his little brother's heart, making him hope to hell and want to pray to a deity that he didn't believe in that he would have his cocky, cheerful and confident brother back, but the emotionally sore twisting in his stomach excruciatingly told him that Alex might not bounce back this time as quickly as he usually did, if he did at all. He was a failure through and through. He had let his older brother down yesterday when they had been abducted, and then let him down again when they were fighting Aksua. He clearly didn't have what it took to be a prince, let alone a king. He was pathetic.

"_No angels can save you from me._"

Cai tried to hold Alex's arms down, but despite his brother being wounded and weak he was still infinitely stronger than his younger sibling (Caiellis was still faint also), and broke out of his grasp, beginning to try and dislodge the needle again, flames still pulsing around him.

Knowing that wrestling against his big brother wouldn't achieve much and may end up hurting the older boy, Cai instead opted to take hold of Alex's head in both hands and force him to look into his eyes.

"Alex," he said again, and once again the older boy's terrified eyes locked with his. "Do you remember, every time that I have ever been down, or hurt, you have been there for me?"

The older boy was still struggling against the needle, although the flames had receded to a less intense heat, and Caiellis pressed on, emboldened, the surgeon-priest also redoubling the volume of her chanting, though the prince's words still cut through it.

"Do you remember the days after mum died, where every time I was sad you would hug me tightly and promise that everything would be better? Do you remember the first time that I was properly, seriously ill, and Tybalt and Tristram were in a meeting with the Light-bearers of Gol at the time? I came down with really bad chicken pox, and although you cared for me and did all you could I was still crying because of the pain, telling you that I looked like a freak with all these spots. You insisted that they were cool, and it was your idea that we drew patterns by connecting the dots. You drew me a dragon, an angel, a sphinx, a lizard, a bird, a dog and loads more," Caiellis smiled encouragingly at his older brother as the boy stopped trying to pull away the needle, the fire dying down around him and allowing the orderlies to resume the operation. Cai looked intently into his brother's wide and frightened blue orbs, ensuring the older boy was entirely focussed on him instead of the agonising operation. He fell into his memories, feeling his brother begin to do the same, and continued.

"Do you remember when I tried to kill myself after finding out what Orzhova really was after everyone had hidden it from me? I told you that I didn't deserve to live, and you responded by saying that you didn't give a damn about what the thing inside me had done one hundred years ago. You said that I would always be your little brother and that you would always love me for who I was, not for what my Summoning had done."

Marik appeared at Caiellis's side, although the king made no move to interfere with his youngest's recounting of the boys' memories. In fact, he just listened, feeling like he had missed out on a gigantic portion of their childhood where both his sons had grown from cute children into great young men. Alex grunted with pain but persisted in listening to his younger brother, the boy's soothing voice eclipsing all other thoughts and pushing Aksua's seductive voice back down.

"Do you remember the night that I killed the agent of Johnias that tried to murder us? I was convinced that I was a murderer, a horrible person, but you managed to persuade me otherwise. Even recently, when you discovered I was cutting myself, and when I was too scared to talk to those people, you still helped me. When Kaled disconnected me from the Summoning Bay, and when I attempted it again, you stood by me every step of the way. Even only yesterday, you reassured me that it wasn't my fault we were abducted, and today we battled out of Welkas together. We managed to defeat a greater demon, a Master of Passion, but when we fought Aksua I left you alone..." Cai's voice broke off as a wave of despair threatened to crash into the barriers of resolve he had built back up and overwhelm him in tears. He noticed that the woman was no longer singer the purification ritual, meaning that everyone in the room was listening to him. Caiellis gulped nervously, meaning to stop talking, but when he looked back down into Alexander's eyes, enraptured by his little brother comforting him, he knew that he should go on.

"I failed you, and I am so damn sorry. You've been there for me all my life, and the one time you needed me to back you up I failed you. But not now, not ever. I won't leave you again. I _won't_ leave you again." Caiellis began to murmur, his voice an accusative half-growl aimed at himself. He felt a hand brush against his back and gently push him forwards, and he sat on the side of his brother's bed as the older boy hugged him weakly.

"Don't...blame yourself...little buddy," Alex whispered faintly into his brother's ear, who stifled tears. "Thank...you...for that...you...girl."

Cai grinned at the weak teasing, and his brother smiled back before being plunged back into unconsciousness, the smile still remaining on his pale features.

"As heart-warming as that was, we need you to step aside, Lord Caiellis." the leader of the operation ordered, his gruff voice coloured slightly with warmth at the prince's speech, echoing what all of them felt. "Despite the corruption being expunged, Lord Alexander is still grievously wounded, and we need to work on that if he is to live through the day."

Caiellis nodded and backed away from his brother, and then wished he hadn't moved so suddenly; it sent pains through his head, a pounding white noise that made him fall to his knees.

"Alright Caiellis, your wounds need seeing to," Marik uttered, and his son vehemently shook his head, wanting to stay in the room and watch over his brother. "Look down, Caiellis, and then deny that you need help again."

The prince did as he was told, glancing down to the source of most of his throbbing pain. The bandage that had been around his leg had ripped off when he had strode to Alexander in the older boy's panic, exposing a wound that had been rubbed raw by him jolting the fabric around. A trail of blood spilled across the sterilised and white floor of the surgery, flowing from his former seat, to his brother's bed, and then arcing back to where he now knelt. The wound looked painful, and probably infected, and was busying pumping more crimson liquid onto the floor.

"Doesn't matter," he stated, getting back to his feet, determined to make sure Alex would remain alright, to be there for him should his big brother wake up again. He slipped in the pool of blood, but managed to halt his fall by extending his arms to the ground. He gasped in pain when he put pressure on the left one, recalling that although Tristram had relocated the bones, it would still need time to heal.

"It's fine, Marik, I've got this. Come on kiddo," the Guardian grinned, picking up the weightless prince and forcibly carrying him out of the room.

"No! No! I want to stay with Alex!" Cai pleaded, battering his small fists against Tristram, the second time he had done that on this fateful night and it had the exact same effect. Marik nodded his thanks to his battle brother, and turned back to his eldest as the doctors were busy cleaning and dressing his wounds. Caiellis continued to struggle, although they were getting progressively weaker, so eventually he resorted to a childish mutter of: "Hate you."

"I know kid, but your wounds need looking at, despite what you may think. With the amount of blood you've lost, I'm surprised you haven't fain-" he snorted as Cai's head slumped against his shoulder, "Spoke too soon, it seems. Eh, at least this way you won't try to stop me."

.*.*.*.

After an hour or so, the lead doctor calmly informed Marik that they would stop operating on Alexander for a while, and that he was happy with the boy's condition for now, so he could get some more privacy and rest with the king's permission, taking out the vast majority of the machines. Marik gave it, even though he suspected that Alexander's recovery was faster because of his vaunted Lucerna fortitude. He stood by his eldest's stretcher, listening to the periodic beeping of the machines hooked to him, knowing from his greater time with Alex as a child that the boy hated hospitals.

He pulled over one of the seats and rested wearily on it, beginning to think of how much his blonde baby had grown up. His mind idly thought about how handsome he was, and then pushed that out of the way, realising that it would have been his handsomeness that made Aksua target him first. He dearly wished he had never told the pretty Lucaelian captain about his sons, or ever got close to the vampire in the first place – it had felt like he was desecrating Emili's memory, by he had desperately needed repose in the war, and Aksua had delivered a temporary means to achieve that.

His thoughts then drifted to the pressing issue of Welkas, deciding that now he had his sons back the inevitable siege of the upstart empire could wait until he had fully mobilized all his forces in preparation for a crushing blow. He wanted his sons, Alexander and Caiellis, to be at the forefront of the war, to be his hands and leading his armies to victory, though that dream would definitely have to wait until his eldest had recovered. Meanwhile, Caiellis could be trained in military issues and strategy, attending the sessions that would undoubtedly happen so that he could learn more about the worst duty of a Lucaelian monarch – prosecuting war. That reminded him: he still needed to have harsh words with Caiellis, and he stroked his son's spiky blonde hair again.

"...mmmm, Dad?" a voice groaned quietly, and Marik smiled down as Alexander's eyes opened, blinking tiredly at the world around him.

"Just me, bud," he replied, using the nickname for his son that he had used when the boy was a child. Marik thought he should probably start using them again, though he wasn't entirely sure how Caiellis would react – he had always been closer to his eldest, even when the boy was eight and his little brother was four.

"Where's Cai?" he instantly asked, stammering slightly in his exhaustion, and Marik couldn't quite stop a wide grin from splitting his austere face. Even in the state that he was, Alexander's first concern had been for his younger sibling, not for himself. "Tristram was just seeing to your little brother's wounds, though he took him out and hour ago. He didn't want to leave."

"Who would want...to leave the side of someone...as handsome as me?" Alexander joked, though the effort to show humour failed to hide the pain in his eyes – they ached with both physical and emotional strain, but also showed how he needed his little brother at his side to feel better. He felt awful, like he had fallen underneath a monorail train and then been stabbed with thousands of tiny needles, but worse than the immense bodily pain was the mental agony he felt – Alexander had just let Aksua abused and violate him, although at least the vampire didn't do anything sexual like she had repeatedly hinted at. He felt broken, defiled, and just wanted the younger boy to be with him so that he could focus on his recovery and what was important to him.

"I will go and fetch Caiellis," Marik told him, patting him on the shoulder and then making to stand up out of the chair and go and get his youngest. The second he did so, the door flung open and his other son figuratively bounded over to his bed-ridden brother, with Tristram following and shaking his head in despair.

"I just repaired your bandages, squirt, don't go ruining them again." he laughed, and the boy sighed and turned to look at him, and innocent smile on his face. "Don't worry, Uncle Tristram, I won't."

He spun back round to his older brother, grinning down at him, although Alex could tell that the expression was a mixture of real happiness at his brother's survival and then some extra feigned joy in an attempt to hide the sadness the younger boy must have felt. Cai was wearing Lucaelian clothes again, after Tristram had persisted in refusing to let him go and see Alexander unless he got out of the torn, singed, battered Welkalite outfit with the trousers and shoes also covered in some sort of half-digested bile like substance. The Guardian had also given him the Sword of Glass that he had left on the battleground of the abandoned village, forgotten in his haste to reach the wounded older prince, which Caiellis had accepted graciously.

"How are you feeling, big brother?" he asked, his wide eyes eager and inquisitive, prompting Alex to think of the many mornings he had carried his little brother to the window and check for sunlight. The older boy replied with a grunt of: "Fine."

"Sure you are," Caiellis smirked, knowing that there was no way that what he said was true, and entwined his hand with Alexander's, giving it a firm squeeze (well, he hoped it felt firm) to try and reassure his sibling. He then glanced at the machinery to the left of the bed, reading the patterns that truly described his brother's condition. "Your heart rate is still quite high, although I suppose that is to be expected with the amount of blood you lost."

"That's great, Doctor Caiellis," Alex replied, then turning to send a conspiratorial look to his father, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously, "Did dad ever tell you about the handsome Yentarian diplomat that mum spent a lot of time with? I'm sure you're descended from him."

"That would explain a lot," Tristram cut in, ruffling his younger student's mop of brown hair, and both him and the middle Lucerna chuckled at the unamused scowl Cai wore.

"Alexander, are you going to be alright with Tristram for a few minutes?" Marik interrupted the light-hearted teasing, electing to have his words with Caiellis now before he got too comfortable in the presence of his older brother. "I just need to talk to your brother for a bit."

"Sure," he answered, and judging by the way Caiellis's posture visibly fell and his shoulders slumped, he had a clear idea of what this "talk" would entail. Alex could hazard a guess, and tried to catch the younger boy's eyes; even just a split second would allow him to confirm his fears but his little brother let go of his hand and turned before he could get even a small glimpse. Marik firmly took his thin forearm and led him out of the room, fully closing the door behind him and smiling at the orderly that walked past them, before dragging the boy in front of him when he was certain there was no-one in earshot.

"Caiellis. I assume you know full well what I am about to say?" he questioned, letting go of his smallest son when he felt his grip instinctively tightening around the boy's thin arm; he didn't want to hurt Caiellis, just verbally discipline him. When the boy nodded glumly he continued, wanting to get it out of the way so that they could return to Alexander. "What the hell were you thinking?! You left your brother alone against the vampire! You were smiling! Did you even try to break out of her magic?!"

Caiellis bowed his head in shame as the accusations bombarded him, feeling like he deserved this and much more for just letting his brother get hurt as badly as he did.

"Imagine if you were in that situation! Would you have not felt betrayed knowing that your own brother had just left you for dead? I know that I would, and it damn well shows how much Alexander loves you that he is willing to just forgive and forget about you failing him!" Marik felt his volume rising as he started to release all of the pent up anger and agitation he had built up inside of him after the events of the previous day. "You are unbelievably lucky to have an older brother like him, and what do you go and do?! You go and leave him to die when he needed you most! Alexander _could have died_! I could have lost my eldest son because _you_ weren't strong enough to back him up! I hope you are happy with yourself."

Caiellis slumped even more, and Marik noticed that he was shaking with anger, and that all he wanted to do was just hit the boy, teach him to _never_ abandon his brother again. _Angels damn it! Control yourself! _He mentally admonished, when Caiellis mumbled something.

"What did you say?" he asked, his voice coming out in a more half-furious hiss than a shout, although he knew he had said enough. He had expected his youngest to have been muttering an apology, but when the boy raised his head he could see the blazing defiance in his eyes.

"I said: "It is not just my fault that Alex is hurt. You should be thinking about what you've done as well"," he replied, his voice a mixture of predictable fear, sorrow and regret, but also a tinge of rebelliousness, and scorn that Marik had never heard in his youngest's timid and soft voice before.

"What do you mean?" Marik demanded, roughly shaking the boy's shoulders before he could stop himself. Instead of backing down from the confrontation, Caiellis latched onto in, using it to fuel his form of the anger they all felt at the oldest prince's injuries.

"Maybe if you had listened to me when I told you it was a bad idea to go into the negotiations with Welkalites, then none of this would have happened!" he shouted, shocked at the vehemence and contempt in his own voice, but his mind wouldn't let it end there. Marik rocked back as if slapped, and Cai capitalised on it, unleashing his own barrage of accusations.

"But no, I'm the king, I know best, better not listen to my son's concerns and just dismiss them!" he yelled, and then it was Marik's turn to slump. "You really do have a problem with listening to people."

Marik knew what he was talking about there: when the war had just started, him and Emili had argued loudly about taking their sons to Scientia Mos, but Marik had maintained that the palace was much safer for his young family. A little four year old Caiellis had wandered into the nursery, where the couple were having a shouting match, crying and telling them that he had had a horrible nightmare. Emili had quickly given in to his demands there, not wanting to argue in front of their youngest and instead switching to comforting him instead. Marik had left just after Alexander had entered the room, looking for his little brother, and then only a few hours later Emili had been murdered. He had always assumed that the boy hadn't known what they were arguing about and hadn't heard much of it, but Caiellis had always been an intelligent and perceptive child so probably had picked up on it. This was now confirmed by his words, but before Marik had chance to respond to the statement Caiellis launched another tirade of yells.

"And really?! Marik-Sweetie?! Sweetheart?! Former lover?! What the fuck was that all about?! You knew her name! You knew that a vampire existed!" Caiellis snarled, and Marik turned away, not willing to meet his fiery gaze. "You _told _her about us, didn't you? That's how she knew our names, and what we were! Why? Was your urge for a lover really that strong to risk your sons' lives?"

"... She was supposed to be dead," he mumbled, though the words sounded hollow to even his ears, so only the angels knew how badly his son would take that, though he was sure to soon find out. The green orbs filled with disgust, and Caiellis turned away, uttering. "You desecrated mum's memory."

Marik's anger then started to rise again. Yes, he may have made he fair share of mistakes in his time, but he had treated Emili with all the love that he had. He would not be told what was right or wrong by a _child,_ and certainly not his own child!

"How dare you say that. All I wanted to do was show you that you were wrong to just abandon your brother like you did. How dare you even think that I treated your mother's memory with any less than the respect it deserves," he growled, and Cai blinked in hesitation for a second at the threatening tone, before recommencing the argument. "What, and you think I don't already know that what I did was pathetic? Unlike you, I actually punish myself for my mistakes. Unlike you, I-"

"BE QUIET!" Marik exploded, grabbing his son's shoulder and twisting him around, his hands grasping the boy's collar and half-lifting him off his feet. "DO NOT EVEN THINK FOR A SECOND THAT I DON'T SPEND EVERY SINGLE DAY REGRETTING NOT LISTENING TO YOUR MOTHER AND TAKING YOU TO SCIENTIA MOS! IF I HAD JUST DONE THAT, SHE WOULD STILL BE ALIVE! YOU WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO SPEND EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THAT WAR SCARED AND TERRIFIED FOR YOUR LIVES, BUT YOU DID BECAUSE OF MY MISTAKES." he reigned in his volume, with deep, shuddering breaths, dismissing the mana that had risen up inside of him at his outburst.

"Do not even suggest that I don't feel like I should die a thousand times over for what I have done, but it is the duty of a Lucerna to protect the kingdom, not wallow in despair," he finished, and the hatred and terror in his son's eyes could have broken his heart. He let go of the boy, who scampered away, before composing himself and rising to his feet.

"_Never_ touch me again," Caiellis spat, although his voice quivered, and walked back towards the room with his brother, mentally cursing and trying to control his frightened shaking, although at least some of them were mixed with anger. When he opened the door, he turned back around for the last time, seeing his father looking at his hands in despair. He quashed the sudden, almost overwhelming urge to run up to the man, hug him and apologise for what he had said – dad didn't deserve his forgiveness, and doing that would show that he had given up. He felt like slamming the door, but didn't want to disturb his brother, who was back asleep.

"Cai," Tristram said quietly, debating on whether to hug the boy or not, but they had more pressing concerns. "This is going to sound awkward, but could you get in with your brother. I know it is only five o'clock, and that you are both teenagers, but he has been shaking ever since you left. I was planning to do it myself had you not come in now, but to be honest I think your brother would prefer his little brother to a random man."

The boy nodded slowly, realising that his brother was in fact uncharacteristically trembling and sobbing quietly, and didn't hesitate. He pulled off the jacket he was wearing, giving it to Tristram as a wave of exhaustion washed over him as well – he was drained, though not literally like his brother, by the escape from Welkas, and if his brother needed comfort then he wouldn't waste any time. He crawled under the blankets, plastering his chest to Alex's back and throwing his left arm protectively around him, taking care to not put too much pressure on his big brother's bruised abdomen and cracked ribs, or disrupt any of the newly stitched wounds. Tristram turned the light off and went to stand outside the room, feeling like he was intruding on something.

He flashed back to a time when Alexander would always do the same to him after a horrible nightmare, a storm or he felt scared about the war, sometimes humming the reassuring tune of the _Canticia Luxia, _sometimes telling him small stories, sometimes just comforting him with his presence alone. Though the roles were reversed, he still felt that extra sense of security being so close to his brother, especially after the horrible argument he had just had with their father. It appeared that Alex felt the same, after at first tensing as he felt someone grab his from behind, before unconsciously ascertaining that it was just little Cai. He relaxed against his little brother, encouraged to know that someone had his back, that someone could protect him from reliving the experience only a few hours ago. He finally felt safe. Though still he couldn't stop himself from mumbling something inaudible.

"Shhh... Just go to sleep, big brother. I'm watching over you. I promise that I won't fail you again, not now, and not ever," the older boy relaxed at the words, burrowing further into the blankets and pillows.

After a few minutes, the door creaked open, some light spilling into the room, and Marik quietly snuck inside. Caiellis's sleepy eyes flashed to the man, still full of angry defiance, baiting their father to continue the argument and wake up Alexander. The king sighed quietly, realising that he could have easily lost both his sons on this day, and sat in the chair next to the bed. Caiellis visibly braced himself as the man's arm hovered over him, but instead Marik chose to tenderly stroke Alex's hair, not forgetting his youngest's words but just wanting to hug him after the argument. Caiellis would forgive him when he was ready, and the king didn't want to rush that.


	18. Sadness and Laughter

_Day 7 – This chapter._

_Also, Happy New Year to my readers!_

The first thing she felt was pain, an awful burning stimulus pushing its way through her nerves and making her want to scream until her voice died and her throat became raw. Then, came the confusion, along with a flood of jumbled memories that made absolutely no sense. _If that really happened...how am I still alive? _She thought, before ignoring that and focussing on her current situation. She was ravenous, and needed to feed to ensure her own survival. As usual, that came before anything else, she could find out how she was still living after securing that life.

She blinked in shock when she realised that her eyes were already open, she just couldn't see anything in the complete and utter blackness. That was unusual, normally even in the eternal night of her homeland she could still perceive things from miles away, her post-human eyes allowing her to see through the darkness, but now she couldn't. Had her deal with the horror utterly removed her vampiric powers? Panic shuddered through her mind, but even existence as a normal human again was preferable to the fate that her bargain with Nocturon should have consigned her to – she would persist, make more contracts with demons to secure her immortality again, sell her soul a thousand times over and commit unspeakable atrocities if it stopped her from having to die. _I don't want to die! I don't want to die! _Her mind wailed, before she quickly brought herself back under control again.

_Alright, calm yourself down, you need to stay calm if you are going to escape this place, _she told herself, concentrating on the issue of her survival and pushing it in front of the desire to live forever. That could be thought about once she managed to find her whereabouts and leave. She made to stand up, but with that came a nauseating sensation that made her want to throw up. She couldn't feel her limbs – more precisely, she couldn't feel anything, not even the inside of her own mouth with her tongue, or the breaths of air that should be passing in and out of her nose. All she could feel was the constant burning, but the woman didn't actually know whether she was actually on fire or if it was just her nerves making her feel the pain, blocking out the possibility of any other stimuli. That seemed more likely. What was she supposed to do if she couldn't feel, see, smell or taste anything? She suddenly thought with a jolt that if all four of those senses were gone, then how would she know if she could detect sound or not? She couldn't hear anything, but that didn't necessarily mean that her hearing was gone.

_Breathe, breathe. Sensory deprivation isn't the worst you have gone through. Well, it is, but at least you are still alive._

"Unfortunately not for long, Aksua-Dear," a voice, one that she had encountered before, pushed itself into her mind, a piercing pain overriding the burning one and making the vampire instinctively try to clasp her ears, although she didn't know whether or not she had completed the action. It was familiar, this sound, and although two people owned this voice it was clear to Aksua which one was talking to her. The darkness suffused within the tone, the unadulterated evil, had grown a significant amount since she had last heard it, completely at odds with his twin's determined and less expressive voice, although the man still hid it within the mask of charming civility that fitted his noble heritage.

_Johnias,_ she mentally growled, assuming that the fallen Lucerna would be able to hear her mind-voice considering he already had done once. She thought about taunting him, asking how the war was going, before quickly dismissing the notion. Provoking the thing that may have the key to her continued existence may not be the smartest idea, and Aksua colourfully curse when she heard Johnias laugh loudly, the beguiling noise infused with a merriment she knew to be false, though the man's natural charisma had carried over through his descent into darkness. He would have made an excellent king, if he could ever have got over how obsessed he was with himself.

"Tut-tut. Aksua-Dear, I'm disappointed: You decided not to insult me, and then forget that I can see into your mind whilst thinking thoughts like that," he scoffed, and Aksua felt real fear flow through her.

_I'll do anything you want, please! I can do anything, just let me live! Name your deepest desires, and they shall be yours! _She pleaded before she could stop herself, resorting to metaphorically throwing herself at Johnias's feet in her primal need for survival.

"Don't be silly, Pretty. You've already done more than enough for me," he purred, his voice like poisoned honey, and Aksua was sure she gasped in shock.

_What? I never killed Marik! I don't understand,_ she thought in bewilderment.

"Oh, rest assured everything is going exactly to plan," he laughed, and Aksua could have sworn that he was wearing a huge grin. "Not that you will live to see these plans reach fruition."

_No, please! I can still serve you! I can still help you! _Aksua's mind voice was frantically screaming now, desperate with the need to carry on living, and Johnias chuckled, amused.

"Don't you think around 140 years of life is enough? That's far longer than most other humans will ever live," he jeered, his words splitting through Aksua's brain and drowning out her pleas. "I may not seem it, but I am wounded, and very close to death. That wouldn't do at all, but I'm not making any bargains with demons for my continued life. They would just turn them against me, but I need to live should my plans ever be enacted. Therefore, I'm going to take the immortality you gained. Don't worry, it's going to a good cause."

_You bastard! _She shrieked, trying to do something, _anything_, to free her from this mess, free her from Johnias's clutches.

"Seizan, if you please," he commanded, the words coloured with a demonic imperative that carried the voice of the abyss. A huge horned beast, the same colour as yellow and aged bone, appeared in her line of sight, like it was floating aloft in the impenetrable void, grinning maliciously, though that was the only expression it had ever worn, perpetually mocking those that looked upon it. She screamed in panic, trying to move away from the Perverter of Truth, and then suddenly recalling that Johnias had just said her demonic master's name, and she had heard it without her mind exploding. The dark lord laughed then, the sound full of genuine amusement, giggling wildly at her thoughts.

"Really, Seizan said that? He is quite the trickster, isn't he?" he sniggered, and the demon's face half-twisted into a frown. "He does fancy himself quite the master of deception, although in reality he is simply a pawn of my resident Archdemon, and therefore a slave to me. Now get on with the extraction. I'm bored."

Aksua shrieked with fury as the realised that her destiny had never laid in her hands – first, she had been given over to the vampire clans by the controlling elders of her village, who had regularly donated innocent young women to them to spare their own hides. Then, she had been manipulated by the vampires themselves, groomed to become a slave, a _toy_, of their ruler. When she finally obtained freedom from Kalitas, she then had to be a slave to her vampiric needs, and in her effort to escape them and wreak her vengeance upon the society that had abandoned, abused and persecuted her, ultimately becoming a pawn of Seizan. No longer.

"It's a bit late now, isn't it?" Johnias scoffed mockingly, as the demon advanced through the midnight murk towards her, the vampire rooted to the spot inside her own mind as three-fingered hands reached towards her.

"I've always wondered how a vampire's soul would taste."

.*.*.*.

Caiellis awoke quietly, trying not to disturb his brother who snored peacefully next to him and feeling unexpectedly refreshed, until he fully remembered the events of the day before. His eyes snapped over to the chair beside the bed, but it was empty, and Cai stifled a yawn as he attempted to silently get up, realising that he was still in the operation room that seemed surprisingly more pleasant in the absence of the vast majority of medical machinery, including the needle device that had been the source of much of Alex's agony. He couldn't disentangle himself from the blankets that were wrapped around him and his big brother, so resolved to debate upon whether to break his older sibling's sleep so he could get out or to just snuggle back down against the protective form of the older boy, though he probably wouldn't be able to sleep.

The door quietly opened, and Caiellis automatically moved protectively in front of his wounded brother, before identifying the intruders as the grizzled surgeon-general, who regarded the muddle of limbs comprising the two princes with slight levity, and the singer of the purification ritual, who smiled down at the tired junior prince as the boy rubbed his eyes with his left hand, the right somehow trapped beneath his brother. The lights turned on, although not quite to the oppressive intensity that they had the day before.

"Lord Caiellis, do us a favour and wake up your brother please. We need to perform some tests to ensure Lord Alexander is recovering properly," the woman said, her voice friendly and encouraging, quite at odds with the loud and devoted singing she had shown yesterday. Cai prodded his brother on the nose with his free hand, met by a groan of annoyance. "Come on Alex, rise and shine."

"Can we just stay in bed a few more minutes, Santhia?" the boy moaned, slowly opening his eyes and blinked in surprise when he met the entertained eyes of his little brother, instead of the granddaughter of the Scientia Mos Hierarch, a full year older than him – at the time he had been fifteen. Cai grinned mischievously and snickered: "Oh, so that's why you refused to take me around the Scientia libraries, and weren't at the house when I got back. That explains a lot."

Alexander twisted his little brother's arm painfully behind his back, still much stronger than him even in his injured state, eliciting a yelp of pain, and whispered threateningly in his ear: "You tell anyone about that, baby brother, and you're dead." He increased the pressure to emphasise the point, and then went bright red when he noticed the two Ordo Medella doctors glancing down at him.

"Are you quite finished?" the man asked sternly, though there was a glint of amusement in his otherwise harsh and clinical eyes. Alex patted his brother on the arm gently and released him, a smile that was both innocent and sheepish at the same time, not willing to reveal that his little wrestling match with his younger brother had hurt him under the calculating gaze of the Ordo doctors. Caiellis slid off the bed, stretching and then walking to the side of the surgeons, as the woman increased the light so that they could better examined the older prince's injuries. Alex felt like an animal on display at the zoo, and shied away from the pitying glances they gave him, burrowing further beneath the blankets. He wished they were paying attention to someone else, but then no one had been hurt as badly as him and his little brother's wounds had most likely already healed.

"Don't be shy, Lord Alex," the woman gently chastised, slowly inching towards the boy in an attempt to soothe him. Alexander hated the soothing tone, the pity in it, feeling that a Lucerna shouldn't have to face that. He felt stupid for not being strong enough to both protect his little brother and let the vampire wound his as much as she had, and pushed the awful memories of the previous night back down as the doctor peeled the blankets off him, trying to ignore the seductive purrs of Aksua that were striving to break past his barriers of self-control and make him fight back against those that were endeavouring to aid him.

Sensing his brother's distress and also knowing how much he hated hospitals and being the centre of attention because of his wounds (Alex thought it looked pathetic), Caiellis placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled down at him, the comfort of contact calming his brother's breathing and slowing down the beating of his heart. He sat on the side of the bed but ensured he was still out of the way.

"Well, the first question is how do you feel?" the eldest doctor asked once the boy was free from his cocoon, expert eyes analysing the stitches and bandages to see if any needed altering or replacing. Alex replied with a simple and diverting mumble of: "'m fine"

"And by fine do you mean aching, with stinging pains around the nail and magic wounds, completely exhausted and mortified by all the attention, correct?" the surgeon-general snorted at his look of incredulity, "Don't play "fine" with me boy, I've often had to deal with reckless Lucerna princes and nobles in my time, including your father, who said the exact same thing after defeating the traitorous Light-bearers of Epulaeous and their new greater demons and was greatly wounded. I've had my fair share of "fine" in my time, so don't try and pull the wool over my eyes."

"Please excuse Surgeon-General Mortan, sometimes he does go on rants. It must be due to his age," the other doctor cut in, winking at the boys and checking the data shown on the single machine plugged into their patient. "All seems to be well, although you will definitely be bed-ridden for the next few days as your body recovers."

"Don't look so glum, Alex," Cai offered when he noticed how down the other boy had become, "It is a miracle that you survived these wounds without permanent physical damage."

"Do not get hasty, Lord Caiellis. Lord Alexander may receive numerous scars, and his physical ability could be impaired forever," the grizzled doctor added, as if he was trying to undo Cai's work to make his brother feel better. "Although I highly doubt it with your fortitude. You Lucernas really are stubborn bastards."

"Mortan!" the woman gasped, aghast at the disrespect he was showing to the two potential heirs to the throne. The man replied with a sarcastic, "Yes Esmelde? How may I help you?"

Caiellis burst into laughter, almost falling off the bed, the noise very welcome to Alex's ears after the days of a depressed little brother and the news that he would have to remain in bed-ridden limbo for the next few days. The surgeon-general couldn't stop a small grin from coming onto his face, and turned away to adjust dials on the machine before his companion saw.

The door opened, and Cai instantly stopped laughing when Marik strode in, the man's gaze immediately halting on his eldest's injuries. He walked next to the bed, ignoring how his youngest silently slid to the back of the room, and grinned at Alexander.

"How are you feeling, Alexander?" he inquired, his voice more cheerful knowing that the boy was awake and seemed well after almost losing him the day before.

"I'm good," he replied, looking down when his father arched an eyebrow in dubiety, sharing a glance with the surgeon-general, who just shrugged despairingly. "If you say so. And how are you, Caiellis?"

The younger boy was opening the curtains under the pretence of checking for sunlight, something he was sure that his father didn't know he did (he wasn't convinced that the man knew anything about him at all) and took no notice of the question, scowling when he heard the man sigh loudly.

"The king asked you a question," Mortan interjected, not used to a child showing disrespect to their parent and entertaining the notion that the boy had not heard. "He asked how you were."

"I'm fine, thank you," he answered pleasantly, giving a small smile to the doctor and completely blanking out the presence of his father, who exhaled a frustrated breath.

"Caiellis, if you want to persist in acting like a five year old, then please be my guest, although holding childish grudges isn't helping anyone," he scowled, and added: "Least of all yourself."

He looked at the back of the boy's head, sensing his eldest's demeanour change, no doubt worrying about whether or not his little brother and father had fallen out again, and wished his youngest would stop thinking about solely himself for once. Marik could perceive the "gears in Caiellis's mind twirling" as his wife had always used to put it, so proud of her youngest's intellect and perception of a far higher calibre a child his age should have been. Cai was carefully considering how he should respond, not really caring what his father thought of it but more concerned about the impression his brother would be getting about him and dad. Alex shouldn't have to worry about anything other than his own recovery.

Staying silent would make him look petty and sullen, whereas what he wanted to do, which was shout at his father, would definitely make Alexander more worried than he was already – had dad really expected him to forgive him overnight for the things he said; Cai thought it was quite understandable that he was annoyed about his own _father_ lifting off his feet by the collar and shouting in his face.

"I'm not holding grudges, dad, I just don't want to talk in case I can't control my emotions and start another fight," he responded maturely, grinning inwardly. That was good – the tone had been inflected with enough guilt and child-like innocence to make Marik feel sorry for his actions and surprise the man, whilst also diffusing the tension that was building up in the room around them. Furthermore, the words still informed Marik that his son was still annoyed at him. He was more than happy to have another shouting match with his father, but not in front of his big brother. Poor Alex had enough on his plate, he didn't need to see his precious little brother and father he looked up to fighting. "Surgeon-general Mortan, can Alex eat? I was just thinking about getting breakfast."

At the mention of the prospect of nourishment, the older boy's stomach rumbled loudly – neither boy had eaten anything since yesterday morning (actually, come to think of it Cai had barely touched the Welkalite food anyway), the pastry cakes they had taken from the Glutton's Quarter incinerated in the wreckage of the automobile, and Alex looked hopefully up at the doctor. He was starving.

"I suppose he should have something to provide sustenance and aid with his recuperation," the doctor admitted, and then narrowed his eyes at the jubilant look in his patient's eyes, "Although only get him something small. His body is still recovering and won't be able to keep down a large meal."

Caiellis nodded and left without another word, not asking his father whether he wanted something to eat or not, though the man hadn't had any breakfast he wasn't going to leave his eldest's side until the boy wanted him to.

"Dad... are you and Cai alright?" Alex's concerned and slightly hesitant voice cut through the silence, worried about the strange actions of his little brother and the fact that their dad had mentioned holding grudges, indicating the two had an argument. Marik decided to play down the massive row that had taken place for the sake of his older son, replying: "Me and your brother did have a little shouting match, but it was mostly because we were so stressed as we were both extremely scared for you. Anyway, he is a teenager now. That sort of thing is to be expected."

"The little dude doesn't usually start arguments, he just responds to anger in the same way," Alex mused, and Marik couldn't help but feel that the boy was in the same sentence either accusing him and trying to give him advice. He was so protective of the younger boy, but that was what had led to this mess in the first place. The king sat on the chair beside his son, checking his chronometer – the time was 08:47, and the first meetings discussing the war effort would begin at ten, so he had enough time to spend with his son, although he wished he could have sat all day beside the boy and never leave until he recovered. The doctors took their leave, and Marik stood up, his eyes flicking to Alex, "Do you mind if I leave you alone for a few seconds? I just need to do something. I'll promise I'll be back soon."

"Dad, I'm not a kid. I'm sure I'll be fine for a few seconds," he responded, feeling a slight shiver of fear go up his spine. In fact, he was terrified of being alone, where the memories of Aksua would rise up and no one would be there to stop them, but he needed to face his fears and stop acting so pathetic. Marik smiled back and left, swiftly striding across the hallway of the Medella hospital in the tracks of the doctors. He quickly found them, and then declared: "Surgeon-General Mortan, Choirmaster Esmelde, please give me a moment of your time."

Both doctors turned around, surprised, and Marik fell to his knees, pressing his forehead into the ground.

"Thank you for saving my son!" he shouted, tears filling his eyes as he infused the words with all of the relief and gratitude he felt after Alex's life was saved. The older doctor chuckled quietly. "We were just doing our duty to the royal family."

"Name anything you want as a reward, and it shall be yours," Marik stated, fully willing to give these people anything they desired (within reason) for rescuing his eldest from death's door. Mortan then laughed, amused. "Saving lives is enough of a reward, King Marik. And anyway, without you, my family would have died in the siege of this city, so for that I am immensely grateful also."

Before Marik could respond, an angry gasp sliced through him, and he raised his eyes to see a furious Caiellis holding a platter covered with appetising looking food from the hospital restaurant glowering at him from behind the doctors.

"What are you doing here? You haven't left Alex alone, have you?" he hissed as Marik got to his feet. "Your brother said that he would be fine alone for a few seconds. And do not use that tone with me, young man, unless you want to be disciplined."

"Of course he said he would be alright!" Cai almost exploded with anger, shouting Marik down before he could reply. "He doesn't want to worry us, but every time he is alone he is terrified! You are such an idiot!"

Marik stood, stunned for a second, before his youngest pushed past him, the food forgotten and the tray dumped on a nearby cabinet, shooting down the corridor to his brother's room. He hoped the older boy would be alright after their stupid father left him alone: did the man not realise what his big brother had gone through, and that he would be scarred by the memories of the day before? Cai slammed the door open and his eyes landed on the trembling form of his brother, who tried to hide the fact that he was underneath the blankets.

"Alex," he soothed, sitting beside the boy on the bed and wrapping his arms around him. "Calm down. Everything is ok. I'm here for you."

Alex slowly stopped his shaking, and Caiellis wanted to start crying when he saw the tears in his brother's terrified eyes, the wide blue orbs full of fear and disgust. He forced himself to calm his breathing, hugging his younger brother close and concentrating on the boy's voice. _Angels damn it! I'm so pathetic! _He thought, before giving the smaller boy a rough noogie and assuring him: "Don't worry, kiddo, I'm ok now. I just panicked a tiny bit. Don't blame dad, it's not his fault."

"It is his fault! He should know better, he's your father!" Cai cried, pressing his head into the older boy's arm and violently crushing the urge to sob under the heel of determination and anger. "Why would he ever think it would be ok to just leave you alone?"

Marik sped into the room a moment later, the two Medella operatives following close behind him, Esmelde carrying the abandoned platter of food, and the instant he arrived Cai extricated himself from his older brother and shoved past their dad before he gave in to the urge to scream furiously at the man, fiercely wiping away the tears that were emerging from his green orbs before any of them could see. He slammed the door behind him and took off.

Marik sighed loudly, feeling drained already despite the fact it was only morning and there would be plenty more duties to complete before the day concluded, and that he had barely even argued with his youngest, though it still exhausted him. Fine, if Caiellis wanted to work against him rather than with him then he wouldn't give into the boy's game, but he just didn't want Alexander to have to suffer for it.

"Are you alright, champ?" he asked, his voice full of concern but still tinted by a minute slice of volcanic irritation that he tried to keep out of his tone. "I'm sorry for leaving you alone if you weren't up to it."

"I'm fine, dad," Alex insisted, glad that the expression of pity on his dad's face was slowly exchanged for one of parental pride. "Don't get angry at Cai, it was my fault he reacted like that. I shouldn't have been so weak in front of him."

Marik's mouth almost gaped open. His eldest was actually blaming himself for the argument between his father and little brother! Was he that loving that he was unwilling to accept that it was their fault for the animosity between them, and that meant he had to accuse himself of being at fault?

"No Alexander, this is not your fault. You shouldn't have ever been hurt in the first place, it was your brother that left you to face the vampire alone, and I have clearly been too soft on him if he thinks that I will just accept this from my own son," Marik affirmed, his authoritarian and kingly voice brooking no disagreement and making Alex hang his head in shame, "But anyway, enough about Caiellis. He can continue to stay in his teenager tantrum, I won't let it affect me or your recovery. Would talking about what happened help at all?"

Sensing that they were no longer needed, Mortan briefly check the display of the monitor while his compatriot placed the tray of food on the opposite side of the room, away from the equipment, where the king could easily get it for his son, before leaving the father and son alone. Alex didn't respond, so the king broke the silence that had descended, punctuated only by the languid beeping of the machines.

"You know, I am sorry. I am sorry for leaving you alone in the war, I am sorry for sending you both away after only a month when I should have held you close, and I am sorry for letting you get abducted and hurt this badly." Marik said, his voice uncharacteristically soft and coloured with sadness.

When his heirs had been young, he had often wished for them to grow up faster so that they could be at his side and help him rule, and watch them grow into young men – it was Emili that was better at dealing with children, but now, even though his youngest had only just breached his teenage years and his older son hadn't left them yet, he found himself increasingly wishing that they were both small children again, and he could just gather them up in his arms and guard them from the world. He pushed the thoughts away – his sons were in a very hormonal and fragile part of their lives, as Alexander was becoming and adult while his youngest was going through puberty, and he would be there to support them ever step of the way, no matter what age they were, and his stricken eldest didn't need to see him emotional.

He just hoped that Caiellis would stop being angry at him, though he feared that there would be many more arguments and disputes to come – the younger boy was very intelligent, but he didn't quite have the experience or maturity to interact with people properly yet. Marik wished he would be more like his brother, before crushing that thought as well – both his sons were unique, and that should be celebrated. Just because Caiellis didn't necessarily react as well towards his father didn't mean that the man should desire for him to be like Alexander.

"Dad, this is probably going to be a stupid question, but did the runt tell you about the Resistance?" Alex's voice broke through his reverie, and he looked back at his son who was now sat up, rolling his muscles and flexing his muscular arms. He sat down on the chair when he realised that he had just been towering over his confined son, knowing that the boy would be irritated that he couldn't complete the daily workout he set for himself now that he was back in Lucael.

"No, your brother did not. Did they help you escape Welkas?" he asked, assuming that this what the group was, most likely remnants of the Ja'an Guard that hadn't been corrupted like the rest of the Welkalites apparently had. He found it ridiculous that Jarred Redhand battled for so long to secure the freedom of his people from the despotic and autocratic lineage of tyrants that lorded over them, but only twenty years after he had done so the society of the New Empire reverted back to that way of life, although he could well empathise with the man succumbing to grief when his children and wife had been assassinated – he doubted the Protector was even still alive; Redhand probably having taken his life and the Orders just pretending he was still living to assume control. When his eldest nodded, about to elaborate, Marik unintentionally interrupted him, "And I assume that they want our help to free the civilians of Welkas from the Orders of Passion, insisting that the forces of Lucael should not pillage and slaughter them when we lay siege to the New Empire?"

"Pretty much," Alex replied, and he stopped his stretching, annoyed that he couldn't really do it properly in his bed and that there were no weights. He was glad that his father understood, and after a few seconds of silence Marik offered: "I also apologise for not telling you or your brother about Aksua."

"Wait, what? You knew that bitch?" Alexander questioned, a quizzical look on his features, and Marik belatedly remembered that he had been unconscious at the time, not overhearing it like his younger sibling. "Yes, she tried to kill me during the second year of the war under Johnias's orders, though I did think she had died to Akroma. She must have fled to Welkas to lick her wounds. I'm ashamed to say that she did manage to seduce me after several months, and that I did tell her about you two."

"Dad, it's fine. You thought she was dead, and you probably didn't want us thinking that you had desecrates mum's memory," Alexander said softly, and Marik smiled. _Bit late for that._ He had definitely inherited Emili's thoughtfulness for emotional situations, and he was so proud of how kind this boy had become even without a father and mother and being one of the targets of the perpetrator of the civil war. "If I had told you, you might not have suffered as much in her hands, or known more of her abilities."

"Well she was quite persistent – she followed us all the way to where we were when we fought yesterday from Welkas even though we were in a Yentarian vehicle," Alexander added quietly, and then, trying to make it sound like his experience hadn't phased him, joked: "All things considered, she wasn't the _worst_ person that could have attacked me, I mean-"

"And that's the end of _that_ conversation," Marik quickly cut in, though he couldn't quite keep a smirk from his lips. He knew full well that Alexander had disobeyed his orders not to have a partner until he was eighteen in the civil war and after, but was willing to ignore that because he was a teenager, and a model child otherwise. He recalled his father beating him after he had done the same, flirting with the daughter of the then-Guardian of Cassida Principia, one of the first people that had wanted him to break out of his shell. If he could help it, he didn't want to act anything like his father, despite the man's methods working. He grinned reassuringly at his son, who looked as if he was about to fall asleep again

.*.*.*.

Caiellis left the hospital quietly, pulling his scarf up across his face to conceal his identity and protect him from the cold of the gently falling snow. The frost covered the predominantly golden-adorned architecture of the City of the Sun, so named because of it's closeness to the edge of the abyss and the fact that angelic sunlight more regularly pierced the midnight veil, although even with that it hadn't been sunny for fourteen years, the longest period without light in the history of the kingdom.

The youngest prince didn't want to stray far from the hospital, which was across the street from the magnificent Cathedralis ex Sol, the ornate building almost as large as the one in Capitalia Lux but arguably just as impressive, as the stained glass windows emitted a golden glow that illuminated the nearby streets and the fallen snow in light. Civitas Sol was by far the most religious of the cities, followed by the capital, and Hierarch Aretis and his clerics led hundreds of different sermons in the many chapels scattered across the metropolis. It was said that while Capitalia Lux was the throne, the seat of power for the blessed Lucerna monarchy, Civitas Sol was the glittering jewel of Lucael, foremost in grandeur out of the non-capital metropolises, and the prince didn't want people throwing themselves at his feet and begging for a blessing – or worse, causing a panic because the host of the Angel of the Black Sun was in their midst, as Caiellis knew that out of all the cities, the civilians of the City of the Sun feared him the most. Cai could sympathise with them though, as he also hated Black mana, despite using it often.

He only wanted to find somewhere quiet to relax and calm himself for a few minutes before going back to his brother. Cai felt that he would have exploded if he had stayed in his idiotic father's presence any longer. _What was he thinking, leaving Alex alone? I should never have left to go get food, but then again, I didn't anticipate him being so stupid._ He sighed, before realising that maybe such an action wouldn't be befitting of the normal thirteen year old he was trying to portray himself as. He had never interacted well with people his own age, finding them immature and too concerned in inconsequential things to be interesting.

_Speaking of interacting with people..._ the boy thought, recalling that he hadn't spoken to Orzhova in the Mind Realm in a couple of days, though he had Summoned her. He walked inside the church, wishing he had a golden coin to press into the hands of the donation collectors, and went straight into the nearest empty self-reflection booth, where civilians could pray privately. He found it wonderfully ironic that he was going to contact one of the most hated beings (other than named demons) of those in the Cathedralis ex Sol in an area usually used to pray to her sisters.

He relaxed and let the transference into the Mind Realm take him, depositing him into the familiar location of his lonely cathedral of iridescent purple stained glass and choirs without mouths. The boy slowly stepped towards Orzhova, who was knelt in front of the largest window, wondering whether she knew he that he was there but assuming that the seraph must have done.

"I didn't know Avacyn was so preferable to me," the angel's voice, melancholy and sombre, hit him unexpectedly, and Caiellis sensed an undercurrent of malevolence that made him feel apprehensive, though not quite scared. "Wha-What?"

"Do not feign innocence with me, Caiellis, or have you forgotten that I live inside of your mind?" the angel fully unfurled her awe- and terror-inspiring black wings to their fullest extent, standing up. "So what is it about her that is so much better than me? Is it her strength? Her fearlessness? The fact that she has accomplished so much more than me?"

"What are you talking about?" the boy hesitantly asked, feeling the cold fury emanating from his Summoning and trying to ignore the part of his mind that screamed for him to leave while he still could.

Orzhova spun around, and Cai noticed for the first time that she had been crying, very real tears spilling down her face to join the golden ones etched on her pale cheeks. Her midnight eyes reflected the amount of sadness the angel felt, and Cai took a step back.

"Your dream! Avacyn was your Summoning!" she snarled, her voice getting louder and shaking with an otherworldly anger, yet one that was still all too human. "And do you think I like having Black mana?! Do you think I enjoy living as a pariah, an outcast, a _disgrace_, amongst my sisters?! I thought you understood me! I thought, after all these years of looking for the perfect Summoner, I had finally found the one. I guess I was wrong..." her voice drifted, becoming progressively quieter and softer before breaking off completely. _Fantastic,_ the boy thought before he could stop himself, his mental state souring. _Not only do I have to deal with an irritating father and a recovering brother, but now Orzhova has gone into tantrum mode as well! I don't have enough time for this. It's not like it was my fault I dreamed about Avacyn being my Summoning._

"Oh, so is that how you feel?" Orzhova demanded, and Cai quickly raised his hands to try and placate the furious dark seraph. "Fine then. I won't waste any more of your _oh so _precious time. Get out."

"What?" Caiellis asked, stumped. He took a step towards the angel, trying to comfort her, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean-"

"GET OUT!" she screamed, grabbing him by the collar and hurling him across the cathedral, where he slammed into the huge mahogany doors on the other side and tumbled out. Such a fall and impact should have hurt him, but neither his skin nor his clothes scraped on the ground outside, and the explosion of pain he should have felt simply didn't come. As he managed to get to his feet, the doors crashed shut in front of him, and instead of physical torment, it was emotional agony that assaulted him when he realised that Orzhova was his Summoning, and he shouldn't have thought those things about her. He bashed his small fists against the door, angry and disgusted with himself as once again he failed. "Please, let me back in! I'm sorry! Please, I'm sorry!"

Caiellis felt alone, like when he hadn't completed Orzhova's trial, but now instead of a crushing pressure and the weight of failure, he knew that he had destroyed his chances of ever being on good terms with the dark angel. Cai forced the guilt to turn inwards and focus on himself, instead of becoming fury and directing it outwards. "Orzhova, I'm sorry. Let me in, please..."

He pounded his fists on the door a final time before becoming wracked with tears, almost starting to sob uncontrollably as he realised how lost he felt, the loneliness of his mind without Orzhova overcoming him. He wiped his face, refusing to act pathetic even though no one but his angel would know.

"Orzhova. I am sorry for what I thought and what I said. And yes, I do not even begin to understand how your existence is with Black mana. I don't know what it is like to be treated as an outcast, but I can empathise slightly with you on being hated for something that wasn't my fault, though I have been kept away from it all my life. I'm not the perfect Summoner, and I'm not going to pretend to be. I'm just a failure in general, but I'm sorry for taking out my weakness on you. You didn't deserve it. If you want to stay angry at me, I understand and I don't blame you," Caiellis spoke quietly, though he was sure his words penetrated into the sanctum and that Orzhova could hear them. He wasn't entirely sure where the words were coming from, but they were infused with such a large amount of emotional resonance that he continued, though he didn't know how his angel would react. "But please, let me back in. I need to be with you. I don't think that you are inferior to your sisters simply because you have achieved less in the material world, nor do I hate you because you utilise Black mana or for what you did in Xarius's reign. But you are the only person I can talk to, with my brother recovering and me and dad constantly arguing. You are my only friend, and I am truly sorry for hurting your feelings. I should have taken it out on myself instead of you, and listened to your concerns."

He waited for a long moment, silence eclipsing the world and making the few seconds seem like aeons, and then sighed. Cai had poured his heart out into that speech, and if that wasn't good enough for Orzhova then there was nothing else he could do. Just as he was about to depart from the Mind Realm, leaving sorrowfully and feeling like he had screwed up even more, the angel's voice rang out. "Wait. You said friend, didn't you?"

Caiellis paused for a second, and then answered with a simple: "Yes."

"Do you really think that I am your friend?" Orzhova's sad voice reached his ears, tinted with hopefulness, and the youngest prince was reminded of a time long past when a tearful eight year old him had despairingly asked his older brother the same just after the twelve year old had prevented him from ending his own life when he finally discovered what his First Sisterhood angel had really done after the topic had been hidden from him. Maybe those weren't the best memories to bring up when he was trying to make amends with the Angel of the Black Sun, but Orzhova would already know, wouldn't she?

"Yes, I do think you are my friend. You are the only person other than myself that can comprehend how hard it is to live with the opposite forces of light and darkness roiling with you, although my life had been a walk in the park compared to yours," Cai replied, capitalizing on the moment, smiling sadly when the door began to creak open once again, before he was yanked inside and they slammed shut.

"I'm still mad at you," Orzhova insisted, though her eyes were no longer dejected, and she turned away before her Summoner could glimpse the tiny smile on her face, folding her arms and furling her wings. "Anyway, you should leave, reality is calling."

Cai let a cheerful smile split his melancholy features, sensing that his angel was no longer truly angry at him and was just putting on a show. "Thank you," he said, solemnly, before exiting the Mind Realm, feeling slightly better about himself.

His eyes cracked open, and he sat up in the chair of the self-reflection confessional, a strange exhaustion encompassing his mind as he stretched his arms and legs, before jolting backwards, startled at the presence of someone else in the booth. Hierarch Aretis smirked down at him, though he concealed it when the prince's eyes met his and made his expression drastically more respectful, kneeling in front of the seated boy. That made little sense to Caiellis, who was sure he had entered at the start of the twenty-two year old's sermon, which was supposed to last about an hour. Had the ambitious Hierarch called it off when he detected the magical potency of the prince entering the Cathedralis ex Sol? He wouldn't put it past Aretis to be more interested in gaining favour with a member of the Lucerna family than giving out religious speeches.

"My lord Caiellis, would you care to accompany me to the Sola Atria for the beginning of the strategy session?" the young man asked, his golden-brown eyes belieing little of his intent under Cai's scrutiny. The prince narrowed his own eyes, wondering what his motive was or whether the man was just being pleasant to get on good terms with him, when with a shock he realised that Aretis had mentioned the strategic planning to be starting now. Just how much time had passed in the real world? "I thought I would ask since you had spent almost an hour in the cathedral, though I do not presume to understand the whims of one as powerful as you."

_W__as that a hint of jealously in his voice?_ Cai thought, getting to his feet and ignoring the proffered hand. Whatever. He wasn't that concerned about what the Hierarch thought of him, but he may as well accept his offer. "Thank you, Hierarch Aretis. We go to the Sola Atria." he declared, masking the apprehensiveness he felt and putting on a confident face. While he may despise his position as the potential heir to one of the most powerful factions on the face of Magnus-Primae, it was his duty to act like he was suitable for the role as monarch in front of future subjects. He tore the scarf off and held his head high as he strode into the main chamber of the cathedral, in which golden light illuminated him and made the birthmark on his cheek seem even more stark and obvious. Cai smiled graciously at the people who gasped in astonishment and fell to their knees, feeling Aretis's judging eyes analysing his every movement as he amplified his voice so it would reach far into the building, giving a small: "Ave lux, citizens of Civitas Sol."

The boy favoured them with a magnanimous smile and bowed, mentally trying to stop his cheeks from burning and his body shaking from the attention. He would not have a repeat of the debacle in Capitalia Lux, especially since there was no one to rescue him this time around. The Hierarch followed him as the prince swiftly left, feeling ashamed at the equal amounts of respect and fear the people showed him, but unwilling to let Aretis perceive that. He swiftly walked to the ornate city hall where the strategy session would take place, the old clock on the central spire of the building informing him that they were almost late, a fact that no doubt his father would be thrilled about, having his son appear tardily to an important planning assembly. He brushed off the concerns, figuring that he didn't actually care what the man thought.

Caiellis pushed open the doors to the large room, giving a brief nod to the guards stationed either side, and was met with a disapproving glance from Marik, who said: "Nice of you to join us, Caiellis, Hierarch Aretis. We were just about to begin."

He beckoned over to a large table covered with an extensive map of Magnus-Primae, showing the positions of each different city or important location of the continent that was known by Lucael (Only Geansse of the Erian Conclave was labelled in their area, the rest simply known as the Deep Forest and a mysterious mass of green), with the exact positions of each Lucaelian army highlighted. There were several others sat around the table – Guardians Oleic and Tristram, Uncle Tybalt, general Carlis Montlea and his daughter Elizabex (Cai assumed Leo's absence indicated that he was with Alexander), and a man and woman that he didn't recognise from a brief glance alone, though the boy would probably be able to dredge up their identities from his memory at some point.

Only the most influential generals and Lucaelian figures were able to participate in the strategizing, who would then relay it to their captains and subordinates, although today's session would only be discussing preliminary plans for the assault as none of the Light-bearers from other cities had yet arrived. Cai knew that when his brother's condition had improved then their father wanted them to go back to Capitalia Lux and meet with all the Light-bearers, but meanwhile the Sola Atria would provide ample accommodation for the royal family.

The youngest Lucerna took the empty seat to the right of his father, although he was tempted to be petty and sit far across from the man and force Aretis to sit next to his king, but acting up in front of the commanders would make him look extremely childish. His dad regarded him impassively, his blue eyes as inscrutable and cold as ice, and instead of returning the look Cai examined each of the commanders, most of whom he knew anyway.

Tristram grinned back at him; Tybalt gave a tiny wink but otherwise his ancient face remained focussed; Carlis temporarily bowed his head while his daughter gave the little brother of her twin's best friend, and her own friend, a smile that showed how enthusiastic she was. This would be right up Elizabex's (and his own, he supposed) street, using logic, intellect and cunning to outwit their opponents while having to use mathematics to manage the forces, but he also wasn't surprised that Leodred hadn't come – the older boy would find it immensely boring, although he enjoyed combat and Carlis would no doubt want his son to follow in his footsteps. A smile almost ghosted itself over his features before he repressed it – how many other thirteen year olds would be allowed into war councils potentially deciding the fate of their faction's entire army?

The other members sat around the table reacted in the same fashion as the esteemed general, although Oleic sneered almost imperceptibly and Aretis smirked. Cai's eyes flicked over the empty chair to the left of his dad, imagining his big brother there, looking bored at the strategizing but giving his little brother a smile or an encouraging thumbs up when he glanced at him, and tried to ignore the emotions of loneliness and longing that welled up inside of him.

Marik slammed his hand on the table, instantly attracting the attention of his generals, and readied himself for using his kingly proclamation voice that would boom across the room and hopefully inspire them.

"My commanders, too long have we tolerated the menace of the New Empire of Welkas as they blamed minor attacks on bandits and continually harassed us as we concentrated on the greater threat of my own traitorous brother," he bellowed, noticing the enraptured gazes of his audience as he infused his voice with a small amount of motivational White mana to augment the message in the words. "I know that some of you advocated war from the very beginning, but I was unwilling to risk the safety of the kingdom after we had just ended a civil war. Instead, I argued that diplomacy was the correct way forwards. Clearly, I was wrong, and it led to the abduction of my precious sons (Caiellis could have snorted – _surely he means precious __**son**__?_), the only heirs to the Lucerna throne. Luckily, through their fortitude and strength, they managed to escape (_it would help if you actually told us that_) the despicable New Empire, although in kidnapping my sons they made a grave mistake. I also made a mistake in entertaining the notion of negotiating with these cowards. Now I say, no more! We strike to wipe the Orders of Passion from existence!"

A small cheer erupted from the commanders, quiet only because of the lack of people, although the guards at the door also joined in. Caiellis was busy realising just why he despised his father so much – it was the fact that he couldn't help but admire him, couldn't help but look up to him and think that if he was only half as successful as his dad then his reign would be worth it. That in turn led to him brutally crushing the emotions, reminding himself that this was the man that had caused his mother to die and wasn't close enough to his brother to prevent him from ripping Caiellis's and his brother's life apart, the man that had made him want to cause himself pain or even kill himself, the man that couldn't prevent his own children from being taken away despite being the king, the man that through all that still acted like he knew what was best for Caiellis, still acted like he knew his son when in reality he knew _nothing!_ It also didn't help that the limbs on the left side of his body were throbbing painfully.

Marik didn't fail to notice that his youngest didn't deign to join in with the cheer, the boy instead turning his gaze upon the table to avoid eye contact with his father, and once again Marik could see Caiellis's mind working, tracing mental paths around the armies and forces and imagining them dancing around the cities of Welkas in a battle for supremacy, calculating expected losses from what he anticipated now he had visited the Empire (though he did not presume to know the true extent of Welkalite forces, especially since they consorted with demons, so made a wide margin for error), going over numerous different scenarios in his head at once and selecting the ones he thought best. Even though the boy was still angry at him, still locked within his teenager tantrums, he was glad to have Caiellis with him, and was certain that with all these generals at his disposal he should be able to work out an optimal strategy before going back to Capitalia Lux, saving tremendous amounts of time and allowing him to simply relay the orders to the commanders not present.

Once the noise had died down, Marik spoke again, this time outlining the plan that he himself had come up with so that his generals could pick it apart and improve sections of it, though he was confident it was pretty much the correct course of action. It involve a large amount of offence and seizing the initiative to devastate the Welkalite capital before responses from the other cities could come in – then, if they didn't surrender, they could focus their efforts on each other city one after another until either they did or Welkas was obliterated. It would involve lots of bloody fighting and quick deployments of armies, but Marik had often done so in the civil war (and others) and was familiar with that fighting style, it also being his most preferred. When he had finished, he asked: "Any questions, or improvements?"

"Yes, actually," Caiellis put in quickly, and his father turned to him curiously, "This whole plan is illogical. Instead of throwing all our soldiers into a single battle against the capital city, we should instead enact a long, protracted siege that forces them to draw their resources inwards, detracting from the forces in other cities. Then we can attack them and easily overwhelm them, draining away all their assets and materials from the rest of the empire. Then we can wait for them to make mistakes – if they leave the safety of the capital then we can annihilate their army, whereas if they don't then we can slowly surround and crush them until they are forced to react. We are better equipped for a long engagement, so I personally don't see the need for any rush that could compromise the whole war."

"Interesting," Marik replied simply, irritated by his son's tone, turning back to the rest of the council, "Anyone else?"

"Aren't you even going to consider it?" Caiellis demanded, not noticing the warning glance Tristram shot him. "I thought the whole purpose of the strategy council is to debate the plan, but it you don't want to even thing about my input then there is no point in me being here."

The king turned his coldly frustrated gaze back to his youngest son, who returned it defiantly, meeting his eyes and silently goading him to snap. Instead, he relaxed himself, refusing to shout in the middle of a war council, and alternatively responded calmly, "Caiellis, fix your tone, it is not suitable for a gathering of generals. And yes, while I have considered your ideas, I want this war to be over as soon as possible – first to prevent any other factions from trying to interfere, namely the Yentarian Republic, and also to ensure that the main body of the army does not spend too long out of Lucael, as for all we know Johnias is still active in the abyss and plotting to overthrow me."

The boy nodded, though he still didn't agree, and Marik then asked, "Any more suggestions."

"The part of the plan that-" his son was about to say, his disrespectful tone the exact same as before, still infused with annoyance and an accusatory tint, before Marik angrily slammed his fist on the table. "Caiellis!"

The boy rolled his eyes as if he was the one that had to deal with a petulant and insolent child, and sighed. "Oh I do apologise. My esteemed King Marik Ensis Lucerna, may you spare a moment to grant me your exalted permission to contribute my humble ideas to the discussion?" he half-sneered contemptuously, imitating some of the frightened servants that weren't familiar with their monarch, though both him and his father knew that Marik had snapped unnecessarily and that Caiellis had been perfectly reasonable in wanting to help. Marik scowled, his son making him look like a fool, and muttered: "Permission granted."

"Thank you," he smiled innocently, looking exactly like the diligent and helpful son Marik knew he would be if they got on better, "I was about to say that the fact that we are risking everything in a single battle is extremely reckless and not really necessary when we can take fewer risks and still achieve victory just as decisively. Furthermore, the Welkalite military is suited for huge amounts of violence in short amounts of time, so the plan that I suggested would help to counteract that. Finally, Usnaan is the capital of Welkas and we all know that they consort with demons – in fact, judging by the example of Ershun Firefist, Master of Gluttony, who me and my brother defeated in our escape, each Master of and Order of Passion has access to a greater demon – in his case it was Azarklak, Lord of the Everlasting Banquet, and although he stood little chance against two First Sisterhood angels, he still was a formidable foe, and if there are more powerful demons there then you could end up sending our army to all die in the first engagement. To conclude, I think that the plan that you have put forward is illogical, reckless and smacks of arrogance and not truly understanding our foes."

Although his son did raise thought-provoking points, the way he said it incensed the king, as well as Caiellis's clear intentions to insult him. "Show some respect, boy, or I will have you removed from this council and further ones."

"Why, are you not willing to admit that you could be wrong? You really do have some problems with listening to people," Caiellis spoke perfectly evenly, though each syllable was suffused with resentment and hatred. Before Marik could react and explode in front of his son, Tristram got up from his seat and yanked Cai out of his, pulling the weightless prince outside and placing his large hands on the boy's thin shoulders, who was beginning to tremble with rage.

"Cai, you really need to stop jabbing at your dad in the middle of a council session," he chastised, using the gently admonishing tone he had developed when he had to care for Alexander and his little brother during the civil war, though he had normally used this one on the older boy after the siblings fought, the younger prince at first not wanting to speak to him and preferring to talk to Uncle Tybalt. "While I don't know exactly what has happened between you two, though I did hear some angry shouting yesterday, I know that you and your dad aren't on the best terms at the moment, but you shouldn't let that get in the way of forming a strategy that will put soldiers' lives at stake, ok?"

"He's just so stupid!" Cai yelled, frustrated tears starting to well up in the corner of his eyes. "He refuses to accept that anyone but himself could be right, and he thinks that he knows me and Alex when in actual fact he doesn't know anything about us!"

Tristram sighed, knowing well that the volatile combination of the king's pride and his son's dislike of him due to what he had said to him when he had returned from the war, greeting to boy with disappointment and censure instead of love after nine years of not seeing him would have been bound to detonate sometime soon, and Alexander's wounding was evidently the perfect catalyst for it. He pulled the boy into a hug, resting his stubbled chin on his head in a manner that the boy's big brother had often done. "Caiellis, if you ever feel like you are under too much pressure, or that you don't want to talk to your father (he heard Cai snort) or brother about something, then me and Uncle Tybalt are always here to give advice or comfort you. I know you don't want to worry Alex, especially in the state that he is in, so if you want to talk to someone then don't forget that your Uncles are always willing to help. Just because the civil war has finished doesn't mean that we have stopped caring about you."

"Thanks, Uncle Tristram," the boy sniffed, and although the words were genuine and heartfelt the Guardian knew there was little chance that young Cai would want to share his worries or burdens with others, but he needed to know that just because his big brother was out of the picture for the moment and he felt animosity towards his father didn't mean he was alone. "I'm ready to go back in now."

They returned to the room, Cai becoming blank-eyed and shutting away his inner emotions in the fortifications inside his mind, and Marik smiled at Tristram, wondering just how the man and his fellow Capitalia Lux Light-bearer were so good with his children, and massively grateful he could call upon them as friends. His son still contributed to the planning, but never spoke out of turn or argued with his father, dispassionately inputting his thoughts on the situation. After the best part of two hours, he called the session to a close, very glad with the amount that they had done for the day; and anyway, it was time for lunch – unless his youngest son had gotten his own food, the boy hadn't eaten anything, which meant that the last time he had eaten food was yesterday morning. He meant to go and speak with Caiellis, but he slunk away before his father could reach him.

.*.*.*.

"Dammit Alex, you _always_ get me with that!" Leo exclaimed in over-exaggerated indignation as his bed-ridden friend used his sappers to destroy the walls of Leo's city. They were playing the same card game that Elizabex had won on the monorail journey to the Scholaria Magnus to try and combat some of the boredom Alexander was feeling. The door was then pushed open and the boy's twin sister entered, followed quietly by the smallest Lucerna, whom Alex thought always looked too shy in the presence of his friends, despite the siblings knowing Cai ever since he was born.

"How was the war council?" Alexander asked, raising his eyebrows slightly as his little brother's lip twisted into a small frown before the boy returned to his previous blank expression. Elizabex replied enthusiastically, "It was as interesting as I thought it was going to be."

"So not at all," Leo sniggered, chortling with Alex at the impatient sigh his sister gave him, looking as if she was about to burst into one of her lectures about how strategy and forethought were just as important as martial skill. "What about you, short-stuff? How did you find it?"

Leodred grinned at the glower directed his way by the older brother, and Cai uttered: "Acceptable." Elizabex pondered informing her friend about the arguments his dad and brother had taken part in, but decided that of Cai wanted Alex to know then he should be the one to tell him, but if not then she shouldn't be blabbing her mouth about something the younger boy would want to keep secret. Her twin asked: "So is that good or bad?"

"Are you telling me that you don't know what acceptable means?" Caiellis let out a hint of a smile at Leo's annoyed glare and the warning glance Alexander gave his best friend, despite the fact that he had never hurt the younger boy and never would. "Of course I know what it means. I just wondered if you found it good or bad."

"I found it acceptable," Cai was grinning now and Elizabex ruffled his hair, "My student has learnt well."

"Your student?" Leo laughed, "Since when?"

"Since you always used to leave him with me when you took off to cause trouble," the girl smiled fondly at the memories of the two boys playing pranks on their teachers and getting caught and disciplined each time, even though she was sure Hierarch Tybalt had enjoyed the little games and discovering their new plans. "And he forced me to read him books that even I barely even understood at the time."

"Yeah, even at the age of two my baby brother preferred adult novels and history books to children's stories," Alex winked at his little brother, who scowled at the nickname he hated most. "Angels, he was a strange child. I'm still sure he's a Yentarian in disguise."

"You mean _is_ a strange child," Leo added, turning his attention back to the game and staring intently at the cards in his hand. Elizabex shared an evil and conspiratorial glance with Cai, reaching out to her brother and dragging him off his seat. "Come on Leo, let's get something for us all to eat."

"But sis!" the almost-eighteen year old huffed as his stronger sister pulled him off the chair, though his struggling made the task exponentially harder. "We were in the middle of a game! Why can't you and Cai go?"

"Because," she answered, knowing just from the look in Alex's eyes that he wanted some time alone with the younger boy. "Anyway, you can return to your game when we've got lunch. Plus, you're Alex's best friend, so you should be able to choose a good meal for him."

Leo pouted and stopped resisting, walking out of the room with his twin sister. Elizabex was going to make sure they spent as long as possible getting the meal, just so her friend had more time to spend with his own brother.

Cai's green puppy dog orbs took in his brother, who stuck his tongue out at the look of concern the younger boy gave him, preparing himself for the flood of inquiries about his health and well-being, knowing that if the positions had been reversed then he would be doing the exact same as his sibling. He shook his head as the image of a contentedly smiling Caiellis with his eyes shut surrounded by pulsating tenebrosity, tried to usurp the real one.

"Alex, you ok?" the boy asked after a short pause, sitting down on the edge of the bed and reading the information on the single machine that was connected to his brother.

"I'm fine, runt. Just a little restless, that's all," Alex flexed his biceps meaningfully, "Can't stand all this damn resting. Not my style, little dude."

Caiellis let out a small chuckle. "Yeah. Because you're in the right condition to be up and about or training. It's not even been a day yet."

"Hey!" Alex protested indignantly, "I can still kick your ass, bitch!"

"Sure you can," Cai smiled, glad that his brother was at least acting normal, sliding further across the bed, "I would like to see you try it."

A half-hearted swipe at the youngest prince's head that was easily evaded was all it took to deflate the older brother, who groaned loudly and slumped back into his cushions. "Angels! Kill me now!"

Grinning from ear to ear in a way that he barely ever did, Caiellis reached out and ruffled his brother's spiking blonde hair, earning a deep growl of disapproval from Alex.

"_Cai, do that again and I swear I'll-"_

"Do what, Alex?" Cai taunted, though he posed the question as an adorably innocent inquiry, moving further backwards as a foot swung a bit too close for comfort, "What will you do, big brother?"

Alex scowled. His little brother was _not_ going to get the better of him; "I'll..." he noticed how Caiellis still looked concerned for him beneath the annoying little brother persona, and he had to stop a grin from working its way onto his face. _This could be profitable..._

Coughing loudly and clutching his stomach, Alex's scowl suddenly faded, and it worked like a charm. Abandoning his quest to tease his older brother, Caiellis stepped closer, bringing out the puppy eyes in preparation for his brother to try and brush off the pain he was feeling. "Alex? Are you alright? Do you need any painkillers, or healing?"

"N-no, it's ok. I'm fine, urrgh," Alex rolled his head to the side, a flawless fake grimace plastered on his face that threatened to crumble when his little brother came within reach, mortified that by making Alexander move that the older boy had hurt himself. _Just a little closer, baby brother... Ah, perfect!_

Cai leaned closer to his brother, a small hand on his shoulder, and the next moment he was on his back, the boy's arm around his neck in a headlock and pinning him down. He blinked, dazed, up at his big brother, a wide grin on the upside-down older boy's face. Alex offered his little brother a bright and victorious smile, before promptly beginning to tickle the small boy, running his free hand through all of the perfect spots that a younger him had memorised that made the kid hysterical. Cai giggled uncontrollably, trying to futilely pull his brother's muscular arm off him and escape from the tormenting, though his body shook with laughter. He tittered hysterically, gasping for breath, his healing left arm complaining loudly at the mistreatment. "Ow-ow, hahahaha, please, ahahahaha, big brother, hahahaha, please, hahaha, stop."

Alex halted immediately, though his little brother laughing had always brought a smile to his face and provoked more laughs from him.

"Truce?"

"Truce," Cai gasped, still giggling even though his brother had stopped. Before he released the kid, Alex planted a kiss on his head, a rare gesture from the older boy, and said: "I know you are concerned for me, but I'm alright now. I know you blame yourself, and you shouldn't. Ok, little brother?"

"It was my fault," Cai sighed, the voice full of self-loathing, and Alex grinned: "If you say that one more time I'm gonna start tickling you again. So, is it ok, little brother?"

"Yes, yes, it's ok!"


	19. Sides of the Spectrum

The woman whose name Tradax had already forgotten panted for breath as she dragged her huge body up the obsidian steps on the side of the Palace of Desire's uppermost floor, her blubber slowing her down tremendously and making the Master of Rapture's already short temper begin to fray even more. He scowled as the woman sat down, exhaling and inhaling at a fast pace, contemplating killing her before pushing the murderous thoughts from his mind – she was the best candidate for replacing poor Ershun, and ideally he needed a new Master of Gluttony for the war effort, as another greater demon Summoner would be quite beneficial.

Anyway, it wasn't as if any other important member of the Order renowned for the consumption of excessive amounts of food would be in shape, and he had forbidden the usage of human-drawn palanquins favoured by the leaders of Gluttony. He idly wondered how the woman had made her way to this position of power, how many other members of the Order she had had murdered to secure her place as second in command, before soon realising that he didn't care, the more the better as far as he was concerned.

Tradax made no move to help her as she stood up again, her massive and bloated chest heaving for breath and sweat trickling unpleasantly down her face, and her lips twisted into a grimace, her voice an irritating and vaguely challenging half-gurgle: "How much further?"

The man paused for a second, before anger exploded in his mind. He opened his palm and a bolt of weak lightning shot out of it, crashing into the candidate and sending jolting spasms of crimson agony through her nerves, though the attack wasn't meant to kill. She shrieked in pain, falling to her knees, and Tradax sneered maliciously, his smile like a cat's sadistic joy in playing with its helpless prey. "Surely you mean, how much further, _my lord_?"

The candidate tried to respond, but her tongue lolled in her mouth as the paralysis-inducing torment continued, the sounds coming out as an indecipherable mixture of pain and the half-formation of some words, similar to how a small child speaks in its own babbling language of meaninglessness. The Master of Rapture upped the intensity, figuring that if the woman couldn't withstand this then she would be no use as a host for a demon, and the Infernal Bargain would fail.

Also, he enjoyed causing her pain, and she needed to be taught to respect him like Ershun had done, so that she didn't question his orders – Arendus Draal was enough to contend with, but at least the new Master of Wealth obeyed him completely after Tradax had almost killed him because of the debacle that had allowed the upstart Lucaelian princes to escape. He should have never followed the fallen Lucernas orders in the first place, as killing to only heirs to the throne of Lucael would cripple the kingdom, and if he extended his own life through demonic pacts the unnatural longevity would allow him to wait until King Marik died and then take over Lucael and gain access to the abyss. But no, of course the princes should be kept alive when it would have been child's play to murder them without access to their mana, just because Johnias wanted to see them and Tradax was too much of a coward to incur his displeasure.

The Master of Rapture idly registered that he had been torturing the candidate for over a minute, too wrapped up in his own thoughts of failure and his ambitions that had made his spells all the more lethal despite his original intentions. He smelt sizzling flesh, and sighed, knowing he would have to select another member of the Order for signing of the demonic contract. The woman was slumped on the step, half falling off, blackened by the crackling electricity of pure agony he had sent through her and filling the air with the strong scent of charred meat that wasn't entirely unpleasant to Tradax. He licked his lips, wondering whether he should indulge in her flesh or not, but deciding not to after figuring it would be too fatty and burnt for his liking, and the stairway leading up to the Chamber of Blood wasn't the most comfortable location to be eating a meal.

Tradax stepped lightly down the stairs, pondering kicking the woman off them to see whether she would bounce or roll and how far she would get, and the actions would definitely extinguish the last vestiges of life that may have clung to her destroyed body. His booted foot clacked on the obsidian stone, and he yelped in shock as a pudgy hand, still white-hot from the Master's magic, clamped around his ankle, burning through the extravagant and expensive robes that covered it.

The hand emitted a fiery heat that didn't just derive itself from the residual heat remaining from the crimson lightning, and it burst into scorching flames, searing the flesh from his bones and burning it away in an intensely painful sensation, and Tradax met the woman's eyes, the orbs filled with Red mana and a stubborn defiance that shocked the Master of Rapture, as usually he was excellent at analysing a human's personality and hadn't detected any inner strength to the woman when he had met her, assuming that she was just as petty, short-sighted and obsessed with food as the rest of her Order. This was wrong, but it was a great surprise. He shuddered in ecstasy, delighting in the feeling of unexpected pain cascading through his nervous system, and the woman let go of his leg, the last remnants of strength fading away.

_No! This will not do,_ Tradax thought – he had sensed something very powerful in the candidate before she began the fading plunge into death's embrace, and necrotic Black mana swirled around his hand as he dragged it up from the more corrupt well of mana in his mind, one that he had often dipped into ever since the fateful night where he, Arendus and Ershun had partaken in the Infernal Bargain Aksua created.

The flesh sloughed off from the woman's bones as he pumped reanimating mana into her – as the useless blubber and fat dissolved off her, a new skin was formed by the Master of Rapture's dark magic, a flawless shell that clothed her bones and organs again. After a few seconds, the candidate rose to her feet, and Tradax admired his handiwork – he had dabbled in necromancy to reanimate corpses to use as slaves in construction, but then realised that he much preferred living workers that he could torture or infuse with perception altering narcotics and then ask them to build – the whole empire was founded upon passion, so what was the point in employing empty husks of beings that felt no emotion at all. Though he had utilised the same principle to save the woman, he wasn't just animating a corpse with dark energies, he was bringing her back from the brink of death – Tradax was immensely pleased that the dark defiance in her eyes remained when she snapped them open again, which would perpetually endure until her life ended now that her mind would forever stay in the state of focus it was in just before her death, even though she had been given new life in her malevolent rebirth. She blinked in confusion, and Tradax took in the rest of her – emerging from the puddle a fat and flesh that had once constituted a large proportion of the candidate's abnormally obese body, the slender woman was now clothed in billowing robes far too large for her, and malicious energies played around her. Long white hair cascaded down from her head, although instead of a silver purity the hair was the colour of pale death, suiting her story of almost being killed but revived by necromancy. Tradax looked deep into her eyes, perceiving with a jolt that although the woman remembered all that she had known before her dark rebirth, all traces of her former personality, the woman she had been, were gone, and she stared back before swiftly falling to her knees.

"My lord," she uttered, and Tradax smiled – though not a zombie, his new creation still viewed him with the same undying devotion the reanimated corpses felt towards their masters, though she would be far more formidable than a simple stinking corpse. "What is your command?"

"We ascend to the Chamber of Blood, -...," Tradax answered, the first part of the sentence suffused with a triumphant arrogance, but then he remembered that he had discarded the woman's name the instant he met her. He continued anyway, "Though I have already given to you gift of rebirth, I have more in store for you. To signify your resurrection, you must first cast of the constraints of your former identity to become an avatar of pleasure itself. Therefore, your new name shall be Ilentia, Master of Gluttony."

The Master of Rapture thought the name apt, as it was a character from one of the ancient myths of Welkas he had read as a child, too young to fight in the rebellion that had claimed all his brothers and sisters.

Ilentia had been the daughter of a monarch that ruled a peaceful kingdom until a huge dragon attacked, slaughtering thousands and reducing the once paradisical plains to desolate and scorched fields. The princess had led an army to slay the beast in its home in the mountains, though her band of adventurers was massively outmatched. As she lay dying, Ilentia managed to crawl to the pinnacle of the mountain whilst the dragon was distracted by playing with her comrades and killing them slowly one by one, she found the true reason the dragon was there – the Forbidden Orchard, a garden of the gods that was said to be hidden from mortals, that apparently gave immortality to those that ate from the fruits of the trees. She consumed some of the forbidden fruit, promising herself that she would only eat one so that she could gain divine power and end the life of the dragon, saving her friends and kingdom, but the temptation to devour them all overrode any compunction to aid her comrades. Ilentia gorged upon them, gaining tremendous amounts of power as she did so, and when the magic of the fruit repaired her crippled body it also changed her.

When she emerged from the Orchard after her dark revival, all her army had been slaughtered, but Ilentia found that she didn't care. She was more powerful than she imagined, but soon noticed that the dragon was no longer there. The princess returned to her kingdom to see it in ashes, the dragon lounging in the burnt cadaver of the palace and her people wiped out by its fiery fury. Ilentia fought the beast and bested it with her new malevolent blessings, but instead of slaying the dragon, a prime specimen of its kind, she found that her priorities had changed. The queen (or Empress, as she called herself) used her powers to conquer the nearest kingdoms with her new mount, promising to create a paradise of deepest desire. Ilentia was said to be the first in the line of the Old Welkas line of tyrants that had been overthrown twenty years ago, and although Tradax wouldn't put it past the old rulers to have invented the myth to cement their position of dominance, saying it was their divine right to rule, he had enjoyed reading the story and supposed that all myths had a modicum of truth in them. More likely Ilentia had simply been born with a draconic Summoning and used to to terrorize the populace into compliance, never a hero in the first place, but Tradax had always found it deliciously ironic that a heroine that had set out to save her kingdom instead became enraptured by desire. He thought the name was fitting for the new Ilentia.

"My life is yours, my lord," the woman replied, and the Master of Rapture put his arm around her shoulders, just now noticing how beautiful his new servant was, and how utterly devoted she was towards him, "Come, Ilentia. We go to the Chamber of Blood to begin your demonic ascension."

The walk up the stairs was exponentially quicker now that Ilentia was actually in shape, and the new Master of Gluttony moved purposefully, not stumbling like other reanimations and perfectly in tune with her new body, as if she had lived with it all her life, moving with a feline grace that reminded Tradax strongly of Aksua, though he quickly purged that thought from his mind.

The Chamber of Blood was an ancient room utilised by the old rulers to reach the zenith of absolute pleasure, the epitome of ecstasy that the tyrants soon became addicted to – however such a thing required monumental sacrifices to satiate the dark beings that provided the euphoria and weaken the barriers between the material plane and Sancturia, meaning that the obsidian stone of the chamber was permanently stained with the blood of thousands of innocents, turning the once black rock a deep crimson. Tradax could feel the power thrumming in the room, although it had not been used for its original purpose ever since the Last Tyrant was deposed in the revolution. This was where Aksua had given them to tools to sign the Infernal Bargain roughly seven years ago, and the place he had given the Master of Wealth following Gretia his demon.

"What is this place?" Ilentia asked, her voice no longer an irritating gurgle and instead a melodic growl reflecting her final mental state of defiance. Tradax smiled indulgently, and explained the significance of the chamber to the wide-eyed woman. He conjured up a small flame and used it to light candles around the room, exposing an inverted seven-pointed star surrounded by a circle etched into the centre of the floor. Infernal Bargains were laughably easy to do if one was powerful enough to withstand the sacrifice of their original Summoning and the new demon's temptations – all one needed was a location for contacting the demons, although Aksua had told him that it was only easy because the demons wanted it to be so more succumbed to the lust for power and their souls ended up in their claws. Having his own greater demon would make the process safer (if said greater demon didn't try to betray him, which he doubted).

Tradax channelled his mana into the ritual circle, feeling the veil that had already been thinned by countless deaths in the room begin to crack. Ilentia's red eyes were full of apprehensive awe, and Tradax's grin widened as physical space warped around them, plunging the two into the space between Sancturia and reality that did not conform to the laws of either plane, but still outwardly appeared like the Chamber of Blood. He swiftly looked inside himself, concentrating on the inner darkness deep within him, the pulsating heart of the corruption that had blossomed within his soul, as Red and Black mana erupted around him and a manic cackling sprung into life. The Summoning was significantly easier to do in the unknown plane due to its proximity to Sancturia, and Tradax grinned wildly as his own demon ripped through the walls of existence and plodded into the room.

It was a huge, lumbering red beast that was covered in wicked spines that were as tall as the humans, and instead of wings these spikes thrust out of its back. A gigantic tail snaked out of the back of the hunched demon, next to tree-trunk legs that made the ground shake with every footstep. Gargantuan arms extended from the demon's muscular chest, holding a naked human that cackled with pure insanity that must have been a soul claimed by the denizen of the darkness. Strangely-shaped horns curled out of its head, looping back on themselves like the antlers of a corrupted nature god, and a large maw gaped open and was filled with bone-white teeth. The demon was unique amongst its usually bipedal and winged kind, much more akin to a limbed slug than a humanoid demon.

However, it were the eyes and the aura the demon exuded that were the most terrifying aspects – the creature's small eyes glowed with an unnaturally bright green light that promised an eternity of madness, and the sounds of extreme pleasure mixed with screams of lunacy echoed throughout the chamber. A being of the demon's size should not have been able to fit within the Chamber of Blood, but the fact that it did was a testament to the physics-altering properties of the void between planes.

"This is an honour," the demon gurgled mockingly, violently shaking the screaming lunatic soul in its hands before taking a huge bite out of the middle of it and tossing the halved remains across the room, splattering the walls and floor with insubstantial soul-blood. That was the price of Infernal Bargains – yes, they gave huge amounts of power, but that power came at a steep price – the corruption of the Summoner, the sacrifice of the Summoning and the fact that the soul of the one who entered in the contract would forever belong to the demon instead of progressing to whatever afterlife existed.

Tradax's demon, Carramoshk, liked to slowly render his victims insane whilst said victim thought it was experiencing the apotheosis of bliss, and then swiftly dispel that illusion by consuming their essence once he tired of them. Whilst some Sancturia creatures presided over potentially thousands of titles in many different languages, human and not, (Azarklak, Lord of the Everlasting Banquet, Arch-Patriarch of Gluttony and so on came to Tradax's mind) Carramoshk preferred the simple and fitting moniker of the Sire of Insanity. The upper body of his most recent victim landed with a wet _splat _at Tradax's feet, and the Master of Rapture rolled his eyes when he noticed it was his predecessor in the role that he had had Carramoshk kill, snorting at the melodrama of the act.

Clearly his demon was trying to tell him something, although to be fair Aksua's method of an Infernal Bargain dragged the three demons in to it without their consent in the matter – the vampire had told Tradax, Arendus and Ershun that their Summonings were nowhere near potent enough to be offered as tribute in a normal contract, but the one the Perverter of Truth had taught he forced the demons into it (as was the one he was about to enact with Ilentia). Evidently Carramoshk was eagerly anticipating his demise, but if things progressed as Tradax wanted then that would not be happening in the foreseeable future, if at all.

"You barely ever Summon me," Carramoshk spat, his deep, growling voice halfway between a sarcastic whine and a threatening snarl, exposing the desiccated shreds of flesh stuck between his razor-sharp teeth and pulling at them idly. "Though at least you did supply me with a large amount of victims the last time you did. What is it that you want, Tradax Yulica?"

"You know full well what it is that I want," Tradax replied, knowing that Carramoshk was just playing with him and was already aware of his Summoner's agenda. The demon grinned widely at him, and then his insanity-inducing gaze swept across the chamber and landed on Ilentia, who viewed the demon with her unending defiance but also a modicum of curiosity, and absolutely no fear. The demon let out a booming laugh and then suddenly began to lend Tradax huge quantities of mana so that he could begin the contract. "I know just the demon for her, another of my Brotherhood if you were wondering."

The vampire had outlined a brief description of the hierarchies of demons to him, but Aksua clearly only knew what her own demonic patron had told her, that it was a mirror image of the Sisterhoods of angels but with different numbers and power levels. There were seven Archdemons, and each one had a strain of greater demons that it created or enslaved – however their was no respect between "fathers" and "sons" (or brothers), with each plotting against each other to gain greater power and control and often slaying one another. All of the few demons that Welkalite Summoners had access to were from the same Brotherhood, so this news came as no surprise to Tradax.

"Ilentia, please begin your Summoning," he ordered, and the woman did as she was told, using up a large amount of Red mana to form her Sancturia creature, and sneering in disgust at the cyclops that emerged from the pool of mana, an ungainly and flabby creature that aptly represented the woman that Ilentia had once been. It roared at the demon, who smiled mockingly back, as Tradax began to speak the ear-splitting words of the Infernal Bargain, feeling the magic, directed by Carramoshk's malignant will, latch onto a creature and begin to pull it out. He felt screams of pure anger and hatred echo through the void as the power of the contract started to drag the essence of its captive demon out of Sancturia, and couldn't help but feel satisfied at the fact that this arrogant creature would be forced to follow the commands of Ilentia, before noticing Carramoshk's amused leer and smothering the thoughts.

A ball of pure darkness that spat curses appeared in Tradax's hands, and as Ilentia's cyclops swung a ponderous punch at his own Summoning he threw the ball at it. The sacrifice of the Summoning in the demonic covenant could happen in numerous different ways – he himself had been forced to slit the throat of his former Summoning, an elemental hound, with an enchanted blade and feed its fiery blood to the ritual to satisfy Carramoshk, so a part of him was mildly curious to see what would happen.

The swirl of shadow played around Ilentia for a few seconds, before plunging straight into the single eye of the cyclops. The humanoid beast roared it pain, immediately halting its attack and clawing at its eye, before it began swelling and started to make a pathetic squeaking noise. Then, it exploded, detonating in a spray of solid darkness and blood that drenched the chamber and its occupants in stinking viscera – Tradax had noted that in this realm between realms, corpses of Sancturia creatures remained, echoing the plane where they originated from and signalling the actual death rather than the dissipation of the beast.

Stood in the brutalised carcass of the cyclops was a figure of very human-like proportions, though still far more muscular and bigger, covered with stark white flesh splattered with droplets of the cyclops's oleaginous blood. The demon was quite plain, though it still had the huge curling horns reminiscent of the rest of its dark race. It hunched, a sneer on his features, and it oozed malice as well as an aura of ravenous hunger akin to Azarklak's, although the Father of the Feast's was more about gorging on an eternal banquet whereas this demon emitted a desperate need to feed on flesh, fitting the Summoning of a Master of Gluttony.

"Carramoshk, you bastard!" the demon suddenly shrieked in fury, bounding towards the Sire of Insanity, long talons outstretched and poisonous dark mana increasing their length. Ilentia reacted instantly, impressing Tradax who was just about to prepare his own spell, stamping her foot on the ground as a chain of substantial shadows wrapped around her Summoning, dragging it to heel. It thrashed, screaming unknown words in defiance and pulling at the chain, but Ilentia's molten will held fast and it didn't budge.

"What's wrong, Arrapackxia?" the crimson demon laughed, flexing his biceps and standing straighter as if in a contest with the other demon, "Hadn't eaten yet?"

"You know full well that if I had, I would be killing you now," Arrapackxia hissed maliciously, smiling malevolently at the expression of incredulity that eclipsed Carramoshk's demonic features for a split second, before they returned to derisive and the demon snorted, "I would like to see you try, _little brother_."

The new demon ignored its sibling then, turning its eyes upon his new Summoner who glared down at him. "She's a pretty one, isn't she? I would love to sink my teeth into her flesh..."

"Silence, beast," Ilentia spat, squeezing her hand closed, her expression remaining stony as the demon shrieked in pain and clawed at the chain. "I am your master now. For now, you will do as I command, and when my life ends you may do as you wish with my soul."

"Hmph," Arrapackxia pouted, Unsummoning himself with a flash of spiralling darkness and entering Ilentia's Mind Realm. Carramoshk regarded the whole affair with barely concealed amusement, and leaned next to Tradax, who could smell the demon's foetid breath, whispering in his ear, "She is a strong one. Just what have you created, Tradax?"

And with that, he returned also, and the Chamber of Blood snapped back into reality.

.*.*.*.

Arguing. Alex recognised the sound immediately, raised voices duelling in a cacophony of disturbing sound that echoed throughout his mind. _What is happening?_ Alex thought, registering that he should be getting up but unable to move, the darkness all-consuming and preventing his eyes from opening. He felt weak, like he had done just after Aksua wounded him, though the doctors had said he was getting better. _Why then can't I move? Why can't I open my eyes?_

He needed to get up and put a stop to the bickering, it must have been quite serious if dad and Cai were arguing directly in front of him, and to be honest their raised voices were making his head throb in alternating bursts of sharp pain and aching agony.

"What the hell did you do?" his father's voice boomed, crashing into his ears like a rumbling shockwave of sound, making the bed seem like it was shuddering underneath him. _Alright, that's it... Alexander Ensis Lucerna, you have got to get up and stop this before it goes too far and someone says something they will regret._

"_Me_? _I _didn't do anything!" the shouting protest of his little brother cut like a knife through Alex's mind, instantly reminding him of what had happened before the fall into unconsciousness the boy assumed he must have undergone – everything had been perfectly fine, he had been teasing the younger boy, but Alexander couldn't recall anything past the point where he threatened to torment Caiellis some more and the younger boy had acquiesced to stop blaming himself for his older sibling's wounding. Judging by the kid's raised tone, the argument in the room had been brewing for quite some time, probably both of his family members wanting to wait until they could leave to shout at each other but dad exploding before they could get the chance. "_You _were the one that let the doctors remove the machines! If it had been up to me they would have been kept on, but no, Alexander is a Lucerna, so his body should just recover instantly after near-fatal wounds! Just because I was the one with him when the last of the drugs in his system gave out and Alex had no more energy to stay awake doesn't mean that it was my fault!"

_Cai, dad was just trying to make it more comfortable for me. Obviously the doctors had no idea how much I must have relied on these drugs, but I appreciate your concern lil' bro. Plus, I do wish that dad wasn't blaming you for it, it wasn't your fault._

"Were there no signs that he was going to fall unconscious before he did, Lord Caiellis?" the clipped and clinical tone of Surgeon-general Mortan sliced through the bickering before the king could respond. Alex felt his little brother about to yell furiously before realising who it was that had spoken, and that there was no thinly-veiled accusation in the tone, just a desire to help the older prince. The youngster took a deep, shaking breath, and all Alexander wanted to do was get his father and brother to just sit down and solve the disagreement with them, although there was no guarantee that that would work and he couldn't do much in his current state. "No. There was nothing to suggest that my brother would lose consciousness, although I couldn't see his face and by extension his pupils because he had me in a headlock."

"So that is what you were doing? Messing around with him while he should be recovering?" Marik thundered, and Cai shot him a look that mixed despondency, worry for his brother and furious anger in a volatile combination of negative emotions. _Dad, please, we were just having fun. It wasn't really his fault, __it's not like he could get out of it__, and I should have known not to push myself too hard in the state I was in. _"Sometimes it feels like you just want your brother to get hurt, what with just leaving him alone with the vampire!"

Alexander wanted to shout, to punch something, to let out a huge burst of mana and yell "I'm right here, people!" but all he could manage was to make one finger twitch ever so slightly, something that would have just been passed off as unconscious movement – even without his eyes open, he could still feel the pitying glances spearing into him. Whatever Aksua had done while feeding on him, it left him drained now that the medicine was out of his system, although he could feel fresh mechanical equipment plugged into him and rejuvenating mana periodically pumping through his veins. _I can't do this right now, please, Cai, dad, drop it, please, just stop fighting... _And then the true darkness of sleep took him once again, squeezing him tight within its gloomy embrace and nullifying his resistance.

.*.*.*.

Alexander had no idea how much time had passed before he clawed his way back to the state of semi-awareness again, though soon realised what it was that had dragged him back from the nightmares of Aksua mixed with images from the brothers' abduction and the youngest prince asphyxiating in the arms of Arendus Draal.

The argument had stopped, though whether it had only just concluded or the room had been quiet for hours was a mystery to the boy, leaving the room peacefully tranquil, the hush punctuated only by the languid beeps of the machines and a much sadder noise. Someone was leaning against Alex's shoulder, small hands wrapped around his bicep, and that someone was crying, almost sobbing uncontrollably, and the soft mop of hair brushing against his bare shoulder left no doubt in the eldest prince's mind as to who that someone was. _Aww, Caiellis, don't cry little buddy._

"P-please wake up, Alex. I n-need my b-big brother. I'm s-so s-sorry. I m-messed everything u-up again," he mumbled in between sobs, and Alex thought: _Don't worry about that, I should have just told you that I wasn't up for it instead of tormenting you back, _before sensing that the boy was talking about something much more sinister. "I-I d-didn't mean for y-you to g-get h-hurt. I j-just t-thought t-that S-Summoning was t-the r-right thing t-to d-do. I'm s-so sorry for leaving you all alone. This is a-all m-my f-fault," he wiped his eyes and blew his nose on a piece of tissue, determined to continue with his apology, despite the fact that the one he was addressing was unconscious.

"I should never have believed what Aksua showed me, but it just seemed so perfect and real. I'm so sorry, but if it makes you feel any better you were exactly the same in the dream world as you are in real life. E-Except you were g-getting hurt b-because of me," a fresh flood of tears cascaded down his face, and all Alex wanted to do was to sit up and comfort his brother, assure him that none of this was his fault. "And I should have stayed out of the negotiations at the Scholaria Magnus. It was my fault that we were in Welkas in the first place, and … I suppose I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry. Ha. Ha. I'm too pathetic to just say it to your face, so instead I come snivelling to you when you are unconscious. My entire existence is just so damn lamentable. I'm a failure of a prince, and a failure of a brother. I should have been there for you..."

_Don't think like that, little brother. You know full well that this isn't your fault, and personally I'm extremely glad it was me that was hurt instead of you. I get why you wanted to Summon, you didn't want either of us from getting hurt. And you are the best little brother in the world, do you hear me?_

Cai kept crying, pressing his face into his brother's solid shoulder in the hope that the reassurance of contact would stop the feelings of shame and guilt from pressing into him, but it just reminded him of what he could have lost because of his own stupidity and uselessness.

… _Of course he doesn't, you damn idiot! You're not actually speaking out loud! Wake up, dammit! Wake up and be there for your brother!_

Alexander focussed all of his energy, all of the determination to make his sibling feel loved and safe, to move his arm in order to give his little brother an indication that he was still there, that he was listening to him and wanted him to know that he didn't blame him, though it was a testimony to just how much Caiellis loved his older brother and how low his own self-esteem that he kept accusing himself of failure despite the older boy repeatedly telling him that it wasn't his fault. It took far longer than he had hoped, but eventually he managed to flex his bicep a bit, which immediately attracted the attention of the kid. Cai sat up, wiping his eyes and staring hopefully at the prone form of his sibling. Alex smirked inwardly when he visualised the doleful puppy eyes of the squirt, brimming with hope, though the image was tainted by the huge fat tears that would be pouring out of them. If there was one thing Alex wanted to achieve by this movement, even if for now he couldn't get his little brother to stop blaming himself due to his inability to speak, it was to erase those tears and maybe make Caiellis feel happier.

"Big brother? Are you in there?" the boy asked expectantly, though Alex had exhausted the last vestiges of energy in his prior movement. _Where else would I be, Boy Genius? _he thought sarcastically, hoping that Cai wouldn't just dismiss all his effort to move the limb. "Well, I certainly hope you were listening to that. I'm not repeating it when you are conscious enough to kick my ass for this extremely "girly" moment. And I know that you don't blame me for any of this, but then again you barely ever blame me for anything..." Cai's voice drifted off, as if he had nothing more to say, although Alex knew that to be false. _I can hear you, little dude. But I'm not going to admit it when I wake up. This whole situation is humiliating enough, so I'm better off just pretending that I was asleep._

The younger boy stayed silent for a few minutes, certain that somehow his older brother was listening to him, and then tried gently shaking his shoulder, not wanting to disrupt the machines freshly plugged into the older boy because he was aware that if his brother was able to hear him, then altering the flow of medication could end that state of semi-awareness.

"Alexander?" he asked after a moment, his soft voice piercing the veil of tranquillity that had descended upon the room. _Yeah, Cai?_

"I love you, big brother."

_I love you too, kiddo. Now get going. Don't mope next to me all day. Besides, I can feel myself going back to sleep. I'll see you soon, I promise. And try to stop arguing with dad if you can._

.*.*.*.

Caiellis stood in the centre of the training hall of the Sola Atria, the circular golden room covered in stained glass windows depicting the scenes of many different Lucerna rulers and other Lucaelian heroes facing off against numerous varied enemies of the people. They were easy enough to recognise, although Cai assumed they had been greatly overemphasised – although he did know just how powerful a First Sisterhood angel was, so he reasoned that some of the art would have been factual. There were several scenes of his first recorded ancestor battling alone against hordes of demons with the First Angel, progenitor of the First Sisterhood and apparently known to her daughters as Serra. Many other early monarchs were shown in their own conquests, and he paid each one their respects with a humble nod of his head, though he didn't worship the rulers like many not directly related to them. He identified Queen Arie with her tricolour angel Jenara holding off the might of the Erian shamans and their war beasts, the panel illuminated by mana glowing a deep green that made the brutal battle seem all the more peaceful, although many crystallised corpses were strewn around the defiant monarch.

A huge window representing the defeat of the once-mighty Grafnica nation showed his grandfather, King Garius II (the first being his great-grandfather who had died shortly after his coronation when he had been assassinated by the Grafnica, leaving his son on the throne at the young age of sixteen), annihilating the capital city of the race with Iona. Though the picture was magnificent, the cleansing incandescent rays of the event known as the Day of Judgement shining with an inspiring light, Caiellis felt awed and terrified that the man and his angel had exterminated the entire population of the city, even though the had consorted with demons and been the greatest nation-based threat to Lucael in the kingdom's history.

He had never met the man, as Garius had already died three years before his birth, and not really heard much about his personality since he hadn't really talked to his mother or father either concerning things like that, despite knowing all of his major achievements off by heart and learning about the spells he and Iona utilised. Cai had always imagined him as a very stern and cold man (just like his own father), maybe haunted by the amount of lives he had taken. If he looked deep enough, he could sense that in Marik also, and although the information was highly propagandised, portraying the inhabitants of Vectura, Epulaeous and Crescia as corrupted demon worshippers, when ancient relics had been used by the king to eliminate them there must have been many innocent civilians caught in the destruction. The man kept it hidden quite well, but if Caiellis focussed exclusively on him he could occasionally catch a haunted look in dad's eyes, showing just how much he regretted doing what he had to.

The defeat of the treacherous Light-bearers of Epulaeous by Marik and Akroma was the most recent window, only small compared to some of the others but still signifying the victory over Johnias in the most brutal civil war that had been known to Lucael apart from Xarius's reign and dethroning. When he looked upon his father's visage, a steely resolve to protect the people etched upon his austere and perfect face, he was unable to prevent a surge of admiration and pride, before sternly reminding himself that the art was created for that purpose and deliberately declined to show the flaws of the rulers. Well, apart from one of the rulers, that is.

Completing his brief and mostly inaccurate tour of Lucaelian history, the boy's green orbs landed on the final panel – technically it wouldn't have been if he had viewed the images on the dome of stained glass in the proper order, but Caiellis had intentionally left this image to be the last one he viewed. Aurelia was aloft in all her fiery glory in the throne room, aptly exhibiting the righteous fury highlighted on the then Princess Matrice's aquiline and beautiful face, her red hair unique amongst Cai's family tree and serving as a stark reminder of the Red mana that had been present in her that his own brother had inherited. The Lucerna held a long halberd that was alight with white flames, and her right hand was stamped by the birthmark of the Swords of Flame. Like many of the other panels, this one showed an artist-mage's depiction of a point in time that a hero defended Lucael from an enemy that would bring about it's utter demise, although only this one was unique – only on this window was the enemy from the exalted Lucerna line itself.

Exuding a ludicrous amount of haughtiness and arrogance, Xarius Drakis (a middle name that was no longer used) Lucerna lounged upon the imposing Golden Throne in the highest room of the Capitalia Lux royal palace, not even deigning to stand up and face his opponent. A staff topped with an ornate representation of the Black Sun hung loosely in his gloved grip, contrails of tenebrosity and radiance swirling around it, and the true Black Sun was in the centre of the man's forehead, framed by a baroque crown of gold and ivory that's centre was left empty, allowing the birthmark to crackle with coruscating arcs of purple lightning.

Orzhova stood dutifully to the side of her previous Summoner, her scythe held horizontally and her spectacular midnight wings only half-unfurled. The dark angel's eyes were open and fixed upon her heavenly sister, the onyx orbs showing absolutely no emotion and simply showing the eternal darkness of the night that perpetually surrounded the kingdom, the pure emptiness and nothingness of the void. Orzhova was completely different to how she appeared to Caiellis, though the boy what he saw was the true representation of the angel – when she had served under Xarius she had suppressed her emotions and feelings and obeyed her duty to the letter. He could empathise with those that were frightened of the angel, as she had looked like a soulless killer with no remorse or feelings – Cai knew that this wasn't true, but it greatly reminded him of Akroma, though the Angel of Wrath had shown her hatred of the darkness when battling Aksua.

Caiellis was deeply surprised, actually – he had expected Xarius and his angel to be shown as evil and detestable as the other villains of the past, but the artist had done a sterling job of portraying the mad king as what Cai had thought he would have been like. Xarius had the blonde hair common to the Lucerna line, and was clothed in a magisterial and ornate outfit of interlocking pieces alternating between solid gold or a chequered black and white pattern. The man's face was still young, despite him being at least forty-four at the time, a testament to the life-draining powers of White and Black combined that he abused to extend his own eternal youth, remaining with the appearance of a man half his age.

His green eyes were suffused with a huge amount of the familiar Lucerna pride twisted into something far darker and exacerbated by his malevolent powers, but the thing that stood out to Cai the most was the utter certainty present in both his and Matrice's eyes. Both were completely sure of victory, and although obviously the niece had prevailed and claimed the throne, Cai wished he could have been there to see the battle – both so that he could see how Xarius used Orzhova and different spells they were using, but also so that he could see just why the self-styled Emperor of Light had lost – despite the fact that history books liked to insist that Queen Matrice was infused with divine purpose and was pure while her opponent was corrupted, and that was why she had won, Cai knew it must have been much deeper than that. He had experienced the sheer power of light and darkness combined, so the battle can't have ended in just three blows like all of the historical accounts had said.

Cai could have slapped himself. Why was he wasting time trying to figure it out for himself when he had access to one of the members of that fateful confrontation? Besides, he had been intending to Summon Orzhova so that he could get more comfortable with Black mana and perhaps add some new spells to his arsenal, and the training hall was restricted to Lucernas anyway (he found that hilarious – why would you build something in a city that the ones who live in that city can't even get in?) so no one would just walk in on him when he was in the middle of casting a spell of Black mana.

He shut his eyes, breathing in deeply and preparing himself for the ritual motions that he would go through that he was intimately familiar with, despite only doing it successfully twice and the fact that it had only been three days since he had passed Orzhova's trial of mortality. Cai debated upon channelling the magic of darkness first, like he had done when he had almost completed his most powerful Summoning yet before Aksua thrust him into the dream realm, but soon came to the conclusion that such a state could only manifest if he felt intense hatred. Anyway, it wasn't exactly like he was experienced in Summoning in general, so any practice could be vital. Cai still wasn't happy with how long it took, though he knew that First Sisterhood angels generally required lots of time and power in their rituals – if he was ever in a battle, he was sure that the soldiers and other Summoners would protect him, but even a slight delay could be costly. However, he still wouldn't rush, as that could easily be catastrophic to both him and his surroundings.

Caiellis conjured the golden White mana that swirled predominantly around his left side and reopened his left eye, the orb saturated with pure luminosity and the boy's vision was augmented (or distorted, he mused) by the Lens of Innocence, patterns of emitted mana playing over the art and making it look even more impressive. As usual, his ominous birthmark began converting the positive magic of light into dark energies, and the youngest Lucerna concentrated on those awful emotions of hatred and loss he had felt on the night of the death of his mother that were sadly more familiar to him than any friend he had ever attempted to make, as the sensation of tears dripping down his face and the crackle of midnight tendrils of energy altered him that the Black mana he had generated was enough, so opened his left eye.

He quickly grabbed the star of darklight forming above his birthmark, tossing it to where it hovered in the air and pouring vast quantities of opposite mana types into it – Cai decided that while the generation of mana was vital and shouldn't be rushed, the expansion of the Black Sun didn't need to take nearly as long as it currently did. The sound of the choir sprang into existence, rapidly increasing in volume as he infused the sphere of un-light with more and more energy. The prince drew his crystalline sword, the relic blade shining with almost equal amounts of radiance and dripping shadow, with only just more of the former. He glanced up, half expecting the depiction of King Xarius to be pulsing in the Lens of Guilt, though obviously malicious mana wasn't used in the creation of the art. He etched the symbol of a shadowy scythe in the air as the Black Sun began to grow to critical mass, glad that the Lucerna-exclusive training hall was warded to prevent excess mana from escaping. Cai closed his right eye and saw the world through Innocence once again, going through the motions of coating the gloomy weapon in golden magic that coursed through his right palm.

The boy smiled as he relished in the addictive sensation of Summoning – though many of the benefits were evident, such as having access to a First Sisterhood angel to fight for you, something that was often more subtle was the increase in potency of the Lucerna themselves, acting in tandem with their angelic guardian as their power rose to match its. Amethyst and white lightning coruscated across the circular domed room as a gloved hand gripped the ornate scythe tightly. Orzhova swiftly absorbed the star of darkness that radiate light into her own being, the dark seraph's appearance heralding another burst of mana within Cai.

"You're getting quicker," the Angel of the Black Sun commented, utterly out of place after the drama of the Summoning ritual, and the boy nodded, pleased that she noticed, though perhaps she was just making an idle mention and didn't know that he was deliberately trying to speed it up. "So, Caiellis, what did you want to learn about? Your incessant thoughts about becoming stronger and "not being so pathetic" as you so eloquently word it are getting quite annoying." the angel smiled jokingly, her onyx eyes twinkling with a mischief her Summoner had never imagined Orzhova possessing after the dire things he had heard before actually meeting her.

Eschewing words, Cai looked past the reality of his angel and into the stained glass representation of her, trying to imagine how hard it must have been for Orzhova to have thought that after all the time waiting while her sisters made names for themselves in the material plane, she had finally found the ideal Summoner – one who was born with White and Black mana, just to have her dreams dashed and be forced to serve in Xarius's ambitions. She turned around, furling her dazzling midnight wings and idly twirling her huge scythe, staring at the picture.

"Oh," she voiced softly, the short sound tinged with sorrow and regret that ate at Cai's heart, though Orzhova made great pains to brighten herself up for the next sentence, as if reminding herself that what was done was done and that she no longer had to serve under the arrogant, selfish and sadistic Emperor of Light and that her new Summoner was presently much more to her liking. "So, before I teach you some spells you want to know from me why Xarius lost, correct? Clearly you don't believe the lies about Matrice being drastically more powerful than the doomed king."

The boy nodded, his eyes focussed and intent, and Orzhova smiled indulgently. She really did like Caiellis's penchant for learning and eager curiosity to discover as much knowledge as possible, as well as his determination and thoughtful, analytical mind and patience. However, though she did paradoxically wish it was otherwise, the part that she liked best was the aspect of dissatisfaction with himself – although it did pain her sometimes to sense just how much the boy despised himself, Orzhova would rather he just the a drive to improve rather than the self-loathing that always arose when something bad occurred. Maybe she could help him change that – besides, he was still young and his personality could alter dramatically. That was why she had felt awful after their argument and the fact that she threw him out of the cathedral – instead of being angry with the angel's pettiness, like any normal person would have been, Caiellis focussed the guilt of what he had done at himself instead. Orzhova should have waited to raise the issue in a less emotionally strained time for her young Summoner, what with the older brother that he dearly loved significantly hurt and Caiellis blaming himself for it – she was also annoyed at how Marik was treating the situation, though his Summoning was her detached sister Akroma and wouldn't be any help in that case.

"Do you remember I told you that Xarius could only control light or darkness? That was slightly untrue, I suppose, but while he could wield both simultaneously he was never able to fuse them like you have already done without my aid – that was because his drive to use Black mana was far higher than for his White, and so the magic of darkness responded more to his inner personality – his ambition and selfishness – than that of light magic," she explained, and though they had conversed in the Mind Realm in the short time after Caiellis passed her deliberately extremely difficult trial that only a person with the unique perception of life required not to abuse Black mana but still be able to utilise it could complete Orzhova much preferred speaking to the youngster in his natural habitat, though she had to be reasonably quick as not to drain too much of his mana and exhaust him.

"Don't be alarmed, Caiel- Can I call you Cai? - Anyway, don't be alarmed, Cai, but Xarius fought in a style very similar to yours. He was patient, logical, systematic and methodical, waiting like you do for an opponent to expose weakness before striking when you are sure of victory – using White mana to sustain and protect himself while Black exacerbated his foes' flaws, eliminating any advantages they had whilst slowly accumulating his own until the difference was far too massive for the enemy ever to win. Though I can tell you have almost perfected this fighting style, despite appearing dynamic in an attempt to confuse your opponents, who will think you are an extremely offensive warrior, while also preventing them from gaining profit because of your relentless attacks – something that you have inherited from your father," she continued, noticing his expression darkening at the mention of the monarch,

"However, the main difference between you an Xarius is that even though you both examined potential moves a foe could make in an attempt to nullify them, the fact is that you actually consider defeat as a possibility – one to be avoided at all costs, of course, but still something that could happen should you make a mistake or miscalculation. Meanwhile, Xarius was so self-assured, so convinced that he was perfect and that his fighting style was flawless, that him losing was utterly alien to the man. So yes, his arrogance was his downfall, as while lesser enemies would certainly never defeat him as he drained their vitality to better his own, when he fought Matrice and Aurelia the fact that he believed he couldn't ever lose was precisely why he lost. He refused to accept that anyone was his equal, or better, and paid the price because of it – Xarius thought that his victory was inevitable, assured, so when faced with an opponent that took the advantage from him he didn't know how to react. It perhaps didn't help his case that I was never inclined to throw myself in front of blows for him or heal him, so he had to consciously direct and command me at every turn, otherwise I would just stand still." Orzhova grinned slightly vindictively at the boy, who couldn't help smiling either.

"Satisfactory?" she inquired, resisting the urge to bend to Cai's height as she knew he would find it patronising. He nodded, "Fascinating. Thank you."

"No problem. You wished to expand your arsenal of spells?" Orzhova asked after a brief pause, already sensing the boy tiring, imperceptible to one that was not mentally linked to him. He still had huge amounts of mana as yet unused, though he probably would expend them perfecting the list of spells she was already mentally drawing up that were appropriate to his skill level – though she wouldn't like to admit to herself or him, Cai's age and inexperience with Summoning (factors that he couldn't change without the progression of time) meant that he couldn't yet access some of the extremely high-tier magic, magic that she had never taught to Xarius for fear of what he would do with it. Orzhova would assess Caiellis when the time came to see whether he was worthy or not. "Right, first tell me what you know about Black magic, since Lucael ironically doesn't have much information on it and you had only used it once before passing my trial."

Cai took a moment to analyse the wealth of knowledge in his young mind, selecting the most relevant facts and inferring what he could from them. He wasn't entirely sure, but the encouraging look in Orzhova's eyes made him feel more confident. He uttered: "Black spells are primarily concentrated on the creation of advantages for the user, as it is selfish. This can involve removing threats through destruction magic, or gaining more power – though this power often comes at a price, as after Red Black mana is the most self-destructive energy. However, while Red mages simply don't care what happens to themselves, Black mages lust for power and are willing to do anything to win, including sacrificing allies and their own health in order to be the victor. This means their spells either kill or make some sort of pact to ensure they have more power."

"Excellent," Orzhova nodded, thoroughly pleased and very proud of the boy, "So, because you are already familiar with White magic and I'm confident enough that you don't have to explain it to me, how do the factors of Black link to the magic of light?" She knew that although Caiellis wanted to learn spells, he understood the nature of the questioning and the motives behind it, and was glad of his intellectual and patient aspects – many other people would have become annoyed at her when she promised to teach them more magic and then launched into a full-scale interrogation.

"White mana also deals with the formation of advantages, although relating more to groups than the individual. It can also stimulate the direct removal of opposition when that opposition threatens the mage and those they have to protect," Cai started, conjuring a small ball of light for effect, "The magic of light also heals and repairs, which can be useful if one wished to damage themselves in return for more mana." _He's got it,_ Orzhova thought proudly, Cai's expressive orbs, one of gold and one of ink, highlighting his thought processes as the true correlation between White and Black mana began to click within his head. She motioned for him to go on, satisfied that he didn't need her help – that was good, better than she expected in fact, because that meant she didn't have to teach him about combining the mana and what results one would get from that and could move straight onto individual spells.

"White and Black combined seeks to patiently win while depriving the opponent of all resources, grinding them to defeat in a war of attrition that they can't hope to win – advantages are gained by draining life to both hurt the enemy and replenish the wounds of the user, by participating in Black pacts and healing yourself with White mana so the detrimental effects of the pact are nullified, and by simply annihilating anything too potent to be waited out," he finished quickly, wanting to hurry up and learn some spells, though the talk and introspection in such a beautiful room was enjoyable.

"Since you are already using the stained glass wings I like to call the Gift of Orzhova, without my tutelage, I'll begin by teaching you some offensive spells that combine the mana types together. I know you're a bit uncomfortable with the concept of draining life, but put it this way – what is the point in you getting hurt when minor damage is preventable?"

The two spent around ten minutes with Caiellis learning a new spell before he couldn't sustain Orzhova any more and had to bid the angel farewell. He felt exhausted, but pleased, glad he had another method of attack to expand his already quite diverse array. The prince resolved to try and do this every day, perfecting his range of Black and White magic whilst also becoming more accustomed to Summoning. The angel smiled at him as she disappeared, leaving the boy feeling drained as he sat down, again gazing at the art of the domed ceiling and the windows underneath it and imagining himself in those positions. Then, suddenly, he detected another presence – it wasn't one that had just appeared, he had just been too fixated on his training and conversations with Orzhova to notice the more background shift in mana, and his mood instantly soured.

"How long have you been here?" he questioned, not even directing a glance at the figure who must have been in the doorway. The room was huge, and so as he moved round it while casting spells and training against Orzhova he hadn't noticed the man who had stood silently. The reply took a few seconds, the man's voice that uncharacteristically awkward murmur when he actually tried to interact with his youngest and didn't quite know what to say, though there was more than a hint of parental pride in the words that made Cai's heart soar before he crushed the feeling, "Long enough. Caiellis, I don't often get to tell you, but I am proud of you, and will always be, despite any mistakes you may make in the future."

_O__r have already made, I wonder, _the boy thought, sensing the hidden meaning behind the words but dismissing the half-attempted apology. _He's going to have to do better than that if he wants my forgiveness. _

There was something that he couldn't quite place that just made him irritable in the presence of his father, and the fact that he didn't quite know what it was made him even more likely to shout. He heard the sound of footsteps making their way over to him on the mosaic floor, and was vaguely surprised that his father wasn't armoured, meaning he had got out of his favoured king attire before coming to see his son. Cai dearly hoped the fact that Marik was here with him didn't mean that Alex was left alone, despite his big brother probably still in the throes of exhausted unconsciousness, though their dad usually didn't make the same mistakes twice. _Well, make the same mistakes twice __**with Alex.**__ He's made the same mistakes numerous times while talking to me, which just goes to show how much he cares._

Instead of using words, Marik walked to his son and sat down next to him, although not too close, though the boy still didn't turn around or acknowledge his father. That sparked a pang of vexation, though the man quickly smothered it, honestly quite shocked that his son hadn't got up and left yet and was indulging Marik, for now – and the king didn't want to waste that.

"So, you can use Black mana?" he asked nonchalantly, hoping his tone didn't betray the natural apprehension he felt towards the boy because of it that he constantly had to focus on crushing, knowing his youngest son had a gentle heart despite being able to use the magic of darkness – plus, the boy would never use it on friends and just because Black mana was present inside of him didn't change the fact that he was a kind soul, though the horrors he would have seen in the war, including his mother's death, which had coincided with the boy's first usage of Black mana – come to think of it, if not for Caiellis then him and his brother would have been killed as well as Emili. Marik had never thought of that, and then mentally cursed, realising his blunder too late – why would his son ever want to talk about something that made him despised that the boy himself also hated, especially with his father, who's brother had defected to that same darkness and murdered the love of his life with it?

"Yes. Orzhova said that it had always been present in me, even before she selected me as her Summoner just after my birth," Caiellis replied, uncomfortable with the topic and itching to just leave – he had plenty of things to do, such as go see his brother, go to the main libraries of the city to find more books on magic, and go back to the strategy chamber to pour over every bit of information on Welkas and the positions of both sides' forces to formulate an even better plan, not that his father had taken too well to his clearly superior. suggestions in the first place. He decided that if dad didn't have anything interesting to say then he would, but right now he could maybe tolerate him considering the man wasn't accusing or silent and seemed to want to be with him.

"Ah," Marik responded simply, tempted to put his arm around his son's painfully thin body but knowing that would definitely repulse him. His mind became concerned when he realised that with the argument when the boy had gone to fetch breakfast and the fact that Alexander had gone unconscious before Carlis's twins returned with the food "Caiellis, how long has it been since you have eaten anything?"

His son paused to consider the question, playing the events of the day, and then the one before, backwards in his head, noticing that he hadn't actually consumed anything since the morning before the escape a day ago, and to all intents and purposes should be ravenous and starving, but he didn't feel hungry. Food could wait, he presently had other things to do.

"Caiellis?" Marik repeated, and the youngster shot a blank glance at him, the shell evidently reconstructed and the fortified gates clanging down in his green orbs, heavily restricting the passage of emotions. "Yesterday morning was the last time I ate. It was a Welkalite breakfast, but I didn't touch that much of the food," he commented idly, analysing how his father would respond but already knowing the man would want him to eat. Dad would probably suggest that they went and got a meal together, which the boy ideally wanted to avoid.

"Alright then. When was the last time you had a good meal?" Marik questioned, feeling slightly sick at the thought of the boy going without sustenance for the time he had – he also experienced a twinge of guilt, knowing just how irritable and tired he became bereft of food. Caiellis wondered why he was even talking to the man, but replied with a deadpan, "Three days ago, on the monorail journey to the Scholaria Magnus."

"What? Why?"Marik almost exploded but succeeded in restraining himself. Wasn't Caiellis supposed to be extremely intelligent? In that case, why had he deprived himself of food when it was easily obtainable? Surely he understood the importance of having energy? The boy simply shrugged, getting up off the mosaic floor and making to leave before a large hand encircled his upper arm. He glared down with unconcealed resentment at his father, who brought the weightless boy into an awkward hug, realising with a slightly queasy feeling that he could just easily choose to crush his son if he wanted, before mentally frowning at the disturbing thoughts. He rested his chin on the mop of hair on the boy's head, who suppressed a smile at how similar his father and Alex were when it came to comforting their youngest family member, though his older brother was infinitely better at it, _because _he_ actually loves me._

"We are going to get something to eat. It is around dinnertime anyway," Marik proclaimed, choosing to ignore his son's sigh but not the words that followed. "Let go of me. I'm not interested in food. I have other things to do."

"Not happening. Aren't you starving? Anyway, you are coming with me and having food whether you like it or not," Marik stated, beginning to carry his youngest son out of the domed training hall. A moment of feeble resistance was all it took to dishearten the boy, who quickly deduced there was no getting out of the situation until his father put him down, muttering, "Incorrigible nuisance."

"Incorrigible, that's a big word, isn't it? Did you learn it today?" Marik joked back, grinning wickedly at the boy's quickly-disguised look of surprise at his father making jokes. He pouted, and glanced bemusedly up at the man. "That was petty. What are you, five?"

Marik resisted the urge to lightly punch his son on the shoulder, glad that the risk of using humour had paid off – had Caiellis been in a worse mood, he would have probably set off on one of the teenager tantrums that frequented the only-just-teenager at his father's insult. He was glad that they were actually able to have a conversation for once instead of one of them starting to shout.

"And do not worry about Alexander. Your brother is fine, and the twins are with him. He isn't awake yet," _and I'm sorry for blaming you for his unconsciousness, _he almost said. "Anyway, if it makes you more inclined I can get Tristram and Tybalt to come and eat with us."

Cai nodded, more at ease in the presence of the other men than just with his father, as he wasn't entirely sure what the man would do to him if they inadvertently started another shouting match – sure, he hadn't ever hit his son or caused him physical pain, but the argument that had sparked the animosity between them involved dad picking him up threateningly by his collar. He found it vaguely odd that he was willing to forgive Alex for strangling or hurting him almost instantly, but then again his older brother had brought him up and always tried to help and nurture him, and there was a purpose to the pain that his father's anger didn't quite have.

.*.*.*.

Only around ten minutes later, the Lucerna monarch, his youngest son and the Capitalia Lux Light-bearers were sat around a large oak table that must have been imported from the Erian Conclave but decorated with Lucaelian heraldry and the typical images of the Kingdom of Light. Marik had insisted they have a proper meal consisting of three courses, which Cai thought as completely inessential, although the fact that his Uncles were there made him more liable to stay. His dad and the Hierarch were idly chattering, although the prince occasionally caught furtive glances directed at him from the members of the table when they thought he wasn't looking. But then again, Tristram and Tybalt sometimes examined Marik, so he assumed that they were attempting to detect the prior signs to an altercation between father and son so that they could diffuse them. The boy found it quite amusing that both men were doing it automatically and evidently without conferring beforehand, judging by the surprised meeting of eyes approximately after five minutes of being sat around the table.

Marik smiled magnanimously at the waiter as their orders for starters and main meals were taken, though his lips nearly curled into a frown when he heard Caiellis electing to order the lightest dishes. He checked his chronometer – 18:27 – which sparked a sudden thought from his youngest son.

"Um, dad?" he began nervously as three pairs of eyes converged upon him, though they belong to smiling faces that encouraged him to go on. It was not lost on either Lucerna that this was the first instance Caiellis had willingly sought the notice of his father and started a conversation since before the civil war, when the four year old had no compunctions about asking his dad for something. "Yes, Caiellis? Go on."

"Can I have a new watch? My other one will still be at the Scholaria Magnus?" he requested anxiously, knowing how much he loved to have a precise track of time's flow – it was something that he just felt was natural, and couldn't understand how people like his brother lived without it. The man smiled, glad he wasn't a father to two extremely spoilt brats like the stereotypical image of royal children. "Of course you can. What type?"

"What?" Cai responded, taken aback.

"What type of watch do you want?"

"Um," he paused, "I don't really know."

Marik sighed. "Caiellis, you are the son of the king of Lucael. Artificers across the kingdom would fall head over heels to make you a watch of any design you could ever want."

"Oh." He hadn't really thought of it in that way, "In that case, I just want the same type of watch I had before." Tristram snorted and ruffled the boy's hair fondly, eliciting a scowl because of the roughness of the act. Halfway through the starter, Marik said, "You know, Caiellis, if I'd have known you hadn't eaten properly in several day I wouldn't have been so harsh on you. Exhaustion and energy deprivation can make a person act a lot differently."

Cai put down his fork with a clang that instantly changed the atmosphere of the once-pleasant dinner. "You are so eager to just pass off my quarrel with you as any excuse you can muster, aren't you?" the boy spat, bitter anger infusing his tone. Marik sighed disappointedly, his heavy gaze landing on the boy. Though his words had been spoken good-naturedly, Caiellis had evidently taken offence. Marik wasn't going to let his petulant son ruin the dinner, but before he could say anything the boy launched another accusation, following up on his prior point in that way he often liked to do: "Can you not just accept that I am angry with _you? _It's not because of my hormones, nor is it because I haven't eaten!" he pushed away his plate and stood up, suddenly losing his appetite, and Marik sighed once again. Tybalt and Tristram shared a nervous glance, unsure of whether to intervene on Marik's side or just remain neutral.

"Caiellis. Sit down," Marik ordered at his glowering youngest, the tone tinted with a dangerous amount of anger, "Sit down and finish your meal. Stop being pathetic, or do you want the food that the chefs have spent time, effort and money cooking to go to waste?"

"Feed it to the homeless or something. I'm not hungry," Cai murmured, just wanting to leave and not argue further, isolate himself from other people before he became even more annoyed. Maybe he would go and see his brother – even asleep, Alexander still made him feel safe and protected. Tristram stifled a laugh at his reply, aware that it would just serve to incense both Lucernas further.

"_Sit down right now_!" Marik shouted, his hands bending the cutlery held in them as he subconsciously squeezed them into fists. _Right, that__'s__ it, _Cai thought, turning to leave before the urge to scream back became too much to handle. "Sit back down and finish your dinner, young man."

Ignored. Marik could see how his youngest's fragile body was tensing, and it took all of his willpower not to stand up and go after him, maybe slam him up against a wall and teach him some discipline. _Where did that second thought come from?_

"Caiellis!" Marik thundered as the boy reached the door, opening with full force, "Don't you slam tha-"

Tristram despairingly rested his head in his hands as the door slammed shut with a resounding crash, signifying Cai's departure. Marik crashed his fist down on the table, cracking apart some of the ornate wood. There was something about his son's defiance that seriously incensed Marik, the challenging tone his youngest used just baiting him to react like any normal person would and slowly niggling at him until he had to shout back. It shouldn't be like that. Fathers and sons shouldn't interact in such a way – why couldn't Caiellis just be more like Alexander when talking to his father? He enjoyed being with both of his thoughtful and intelligent sons equally, but the constant arguments were going to destroy him if he didn't do anything about it.


	20. Refraction

_Day Eight – This chapter._

It was the middle of the night, the perpetual darkness around the city seemingly more solid and suffocating with the coming of midnight, wrapping around the gothic and ornate architecture. It was the middle of night, but someone was still awake, and the scratching of their quill could be heard by the one outside. Tristram sighed, waiting patiently by the doorway until the writing stopped, which could be any time within the next hour.

The Guardian was tempted to just barge in, but the king's mood probably wouldn't have changed since the argument with his youngest son, and would not take well to being interrupted. After the heated dispute between father and son, the man had gone to see his eldest, who had been half-awake – a huge relief for everyone, even though the boy seemed like he wanted to be alone, possibly waiting for his little brother to come see him.

If that was the case then the likely possibility would be that Alexander would unfortunately become severely disappointed, because although Cai could maybe sneak into his room without anyone noticing Tristram thought that it was very believable to suggest that the youngest Lucerna had left the Sola Atria and gone to wander the city alone. Caiellis had mastered the hiding techniques shown to both the boys right at the start of the civil war when neither of them had passed their Summoning trial (little Cai had been too young to even start attempting it) and were too weak to be of any help in the desperate fighting undertaken by the Hierarch and Guardian (despite the older boy's numerous protestations).

However only two years later Alex was able to Summon Aurelia, though only for a very short period of time, and so the ten year old never needed to focus as much on hiding on his four years younger brother. Evidently Caiellis had perfected the spells, as normally Tristram was very good at sensing mana entities (a skill that few gave him credit for but had helped immensely in the protection of the royal family), and while he could locate the king and the eldest son, the whereabouts of the thirteen year old were a complete mystery, even if he concentrated extremely hard.

At first the Guardian had debated searching for the boy, the unconscious need to protect him constant, having not eroded much after the civil war before being once again thrust to maximum after the princes' abduction, but he reminded himself that Cai was far from stupid or careless, and almost certainly wanted to find a place of quiet introspection – especially since he knew the training hall of the Sola Atria was off-limits due to his father being able to access it. It had been the third time the kid had left to go be on his own in a single day rife with quarrels with Marik, which had undoubtedly eroded both of them much more than it caused Tristram to worry, despite the fact he had only been present at two of them.

He supposed it had been inevitable that the personalities of the two Lucernas would eventually clash because they were so similar – Tristram smirked, knowing that he would be exceptionally hard-pressed to get either to admit it.

It doubtlessly didn't aid the situation that the two barely knew each other because of Johnias's treachery, as while Cai had always been an intelligent child, Marik knowing him only up to four years old meant the man had missed a gigantic amount of mental development, both of the boy's intellect and, far more importantly, his personality. Then once the war had finished, the king had made his youngest feel unloved and under a huge amount of pressure, greeting him with censure and disappointment after the kiddo had spent every day of his life as a refugee looking forward to seeing his father, echoing his brother with that but perhaps even more so than Alex, who had been given more time to be with his parents due to his position as eldest. And every attempt Marik made to learn more about his son by talking to him ended in disaster as the two apparently argued unavoidably.

Tristram heard the sound of the quill being dipped into its ink and left to clatter on the side of the pot. He waited a second until a large sigh escaped the man in the private Lucerna quarters, and then politely knocked on the door, although he ensured to infuse enough strength into the action that would make Marik know it was him and also know that he wouldn't go away.

"Come in, Tristram," announced the king, his voice soft and extremely tired. The Guardian knew that the man hadn't slept in at all the past two nights (three, if this one was to be counted) – in the first, he was too busy worrying about his sons and mobilising the military to go after them, whilst in the second he had watched over both as Cai curled up with his injured brother just after the argument that had been the catalyst for the ones that followed, maintaining his parental vigil in lieu of claiming sleep. When he had left at around four in the morning, the king had immediately gone to use the mana-communicator with the purpose of speaking to the Council of the Yentarian Republic, as it had been approximately ten o'clock there, announcing his intentions of declaring war upon the Empire of Welkas to them and warning what would happen should they interfere.

The brawny Guardian stepped lightly into the room when the door swung open, Marik remembering that only Lucernas were permitted access so Tristram couldn't open the door, and he smiled bleakly at his champion, the dark rings stark under his eyes. It was strange, to see the man reduced to this, as Marik appeared every inch of the shy and quiet boy he used to be (or like Caiellis presently was), not the determined, strong and austere king he had become almost used to seeing after a month of being with him, though the ruler still possessed some of the parental warmth and pride in his sons he had before the civil war, it had just taken time to rise again after being repressed for so long – Marik had almost succumbed to his emotions at the start of the war, costing him several engagements and almost the entire war before he locked them away.

The thirty year old's eyes swept across the room, landing on the documents Marik had been writing, certificates of Lucerna authentication concerning multifarious different issues, but the ones that caught his eye were four that he recognised as being the recruitment slips for an advisory role to a member of the royal family that King Garius had done also for his sons, and one that authorised a transportation to Scientia Mos as well as temporary control of the city, and by extension its military – though the monarch of Lucael could commandeer any force in the kingdom of their choosing, others, even heirs to the throne, had to request permission from the ruler to take command of an army or city from its respective Light-bearers, though it was unlikely the Hierarch and Guardian would resist if a Lucerna asked.

"So, what's that about?" asked Tristram, cutting straight to the point and motioning towards the slips of paper that had already been signed by the sigil of the Sword of Wrath in the way that Lucernas did, magically implanting their birthmark onto a piece of paper so that the orders were of assuredly royal roots. Though they were upside down, the occasional word stood out to the thirty year old, and the one that attracted his gaze most was the full name of Cai, his youngest student, on the papers concerning Scientia Mos. Marik didn't respond, though his blue eyes showed a slight bit of bittersweet guilt, confirming Tristram's suspicions. "So you're just sending Cai away again?"

"It will be a learning experience for him," Marik shot back, though he knew the words would sound hollow to the Guardian, "And anyway, it is not your place to question my decisions, just follow them."

"It is my place to question if these decisions are made because of your blind pride," Tristram replied calmly, locking eyes with the man, using some of the disrespectful streak of his youth that had often earned him the censure of his parents and superiors, but he knew that out of all of his qualities, the one the king liked the most was his honesty and unwillingness to pull punches because of the man's "divine" role as ruler. In that, he reasoned he was much like Tybalt, although the much older man's grounding for it was because he had taught Marik when he and his twin were young children and so could never quite get close to kneeling before him. Marik glowered back resentfully, although Tristram knew the anger wasn't directed towards him, before almost petulantly crossing his arms. He was conscious that what he was doing would only irritate the man, but with the death of his wife it was up to the king's advisers to speak some sense into him – to that end his next words were reminiscent of the admonishing tone he had often used with the man's sons, "Marik, you need to talk to him instead of just pushing him away."

"I can't talk to him when he insists on shouting and insulting me!" the man exclaimed frustratedly, scowling, "Anyway, he likes books, doesn't he? This will be good for him. And he won't be disrupting any more council sessions."

"You know full well that he stopped after I had words with him, and that he was invaluable during them," Tristram cut in, "And you need to remember that you are the adult, and that Cai is only thirteen. He has had an extremely hard life in his short amount of years, what with his mother being murdered right in front of his eyes at the age of four and having to life within war for the largest part of his life."

"When you have children I'll be sure to ask you how to deal with them," Marik snapped, though Tristram paid little attention to the insult present in the words – the king was being low, trying to poke fun at the fact that Tristram hadn't yet found a woman, but Marik wouldn't normally do something like that so the Guardian ignored it for now, attributing it to his friend's tiredness and irritation. "And in any case, Caiellis is my son and it is up to me as his parent to decide what is right for him."

"Are you forgetting that I have spent more time with boy of your sons that you yourself?" Tristram asked, completely evenly, not a hint of defiance in his tone – he didn't want to anger Marik more, as the man had obviously taken a long time to debate whether or not he should send away Cai, and felt guilt because of his resolution. The words had their intended effects, making Marik sigh in despair and slump back down in the chair. "I'm sorry, Tristram. I'm not angry at you, and I didn't mean what I said. I do value your advice, though I don't often seem like it. It's just … that boy …"

"_That boy _is just releasing his anger on you," Tristram replied patiently, "Caiellis has a lot of emotional turmoil going on inside of him right now (_and you treating him like a failure the second you met him after nine years __of him waiting to see you__ didn't help_), what with his brother being injured so badly and thinking that the civil war ending meant that he and Alex would be safe. I'm going to be honest with you, Marik, the kid has had a pretty awful life so far, but now that the war has ended you should be holding him close instead of pushing him away … again. Plus, instead of dying down Caiellis's current resentment of you will probably just grow because you aren't doing anything about it."

Marik put his head in his palms, a look of utter defeat on his face before he concealed his features with his large pale hands. "What am I doing?" he muttered, the tone full of scorn directed towards himself, and Tristram, instead of reacting to the extremely rare, almost unheard of moment of weakness, pulled up a stool and put his arm around the other man's shoulders in a gesture of friendliness the king never received now that his wife was dead. The king stammered the words, "I'm such a terrible father … and I just let my children get taken away from me … and instead of comforting them when they got back I shouted and blamed Caiellis when he was already under trauma from Alex's closeness to death. I'm so useless … I need … I need Emili..."

"Marik, you are many things – a stubborn, prideful bastard sometimes for one – but you are _not _a terrible father. You are just not used to dealing with your children after nines years with them miles away and without your wife, but even so you are balancing ruling the entire kingdom with being a single parent alone, an impossible task for even the most devoted parent and the best king. I can understand why you are having difficultly with young Cai – heck, it took me around six years to earn his trust and respect – as the squirt is naturally untrustworthy and probably finds it hard to accept you after all these years, just as you find it hard to adjust to being a father again," Tristram coaxed, trying to restore the man's self-confidence back to the state of it radiating from him – truth be told, seeing his king in such a way unnerved him slightly, though not to the extent that the twenty-one year old him had been scared when the man discovered his wife's murder, but he knew for a fact that the Lucerna family was still human, despite what many in the kingdom would like to believe, due to having to care for two scared heirs to the throne.

Marik removed his hands, smiling, and Tristram grinned as he saw the barriers of resolve and determination clang down again, restoring the king. "You should become a post-war psychiatrist," the monarch joked, and Tristram wasn't sure whether the man would take lightly to a friendly punch, which is how he would have responded if Marik had been one of his sons of one of Tristram's other friends.

"So," the Guardian began, standing back up as the king rose also, "What are you going to do now?"

"What do you mean?" Marik replied, confusion creasing his austere features for a second. Tristram sighed, feeling like the older man was being wilfully ignorant, "Are you still going to authorise Cai's departure?"

"I've already contacted Hierarch Martha and she was perfectly happy with it," Marik replied succinctly, avoiding fully answering the question posed to him.

"Does that mean he is still going?" Tristram asked again, unwilling to let the topic drop until he got a clear answer and getting a bit annoyed, though he wasn't going to show it to his ruler. Marik avoided his piercing gaze for a second, and then stared up at the slightly taller man, meeting his eyes with the adamant blue irises of his own. "Yes, Guardian Tristram, it does. Despite what you may have said, the fact that my son is here is directly reducing my efficiency, and it will be a fantastic opportunity for him. Besides, the boys' grandparents live there, as you already know, and it won't hurt him to see other members of his family. Especially ones on Emili's side."

"You really are impossible," Tristram shook his head but made no other moves to dissuade the king, knowing from experience that once the man was set on something nothing could change him from that course. "Sometimes I think you forget that Caiellis is only thirteen. He's too young to be getting involved in war." And with that, he left.

.*.*.*.

The boy that was the centre of the discussion between the Guardian of Capitalia Lux and the ruler of Lucael himself slipped through the almost-empty streets of the city – though the coming of night had only been signalled by an intensification of the darkness and so the light levels didn't actually change that much, many, if not all of the civilians chose this time to go to sleep, huddling inside their homes with their family. It was snowing quite heavily, and he fondly remembered having snowball fights with his big brother in the past, smiling when he realised that Alexander would still almost definitely throw some at him.

Those that were around at this time were either guards or others that had professions requiring them to stay awake through the night. That, or the lost, the people with little to live for apart from the oblivion provided by alcohol of other narcotics. The taverns were still open, of course, but Cai wouldn't be allowed access because of his age unless he revealed his identity as a potential heir to the throne, and couldn't think of any reasons for doing so anyway. He stuck close to the shadows between the street-lights, as although his birthmark was concealed the fact that he was a child wandering the city alone at midnight would definitely attract some guards or another caring person wanting to ensure that he was safe. That was the beauty of Lucaelian society – most of its inhabitants cared deeply about the others, as they all knew that it was unification that had led them to survive in arguably the most inhospitable environment in the whole of Magnus-Primae, but that also meant that if someone spotted a small boy alone in the middle of the night those with nocturnal jobs would be concerned if they spotted him.

He heard the sounds of laughing voices and spied a family walking out of one of the restaurants still open, giggling and joking with each other after what must have been an enjoyable night out celebrating something, a fortieth birthday of one of the adults judging by the large and colourful badge pinned to his grey jacket. Cai saw two teenagers around his own age but most likely a year or two older conversing quietly in the background as a younger child ran around in front of them, waving a toy sword around.

"James, Liana, look!" the boy repeated the shout when the teens ignored him at first, scowling at their ignorance. He twirled in front of them, slicing the wooden sword around and making over-exaggerated noises of combat, "Look! I'm Prince Alexander! Have at you, Welkalites! HYA!"

The sandy-haired girl smiled affectionately and patted the boy on the head as the other adolescent repressed a laugh, "That's all well and good, Marcus, but we both know it is Prince Caiellis that uses a sword, not his brother."

Cai raised an amused eyebrow as the boy frowned, his bottom lip stuck out sullenly, stopping his sword waving. "But I don't want to be Prince Caiellis..."

"Why not?" the girl asked curiously at her younger relative, who shook his head, "He's not as big and strong as his brother, and you know what Mummy and Daddy say about his angel."

The prince felt the sudden urge to step out of the shadows and reveal himself, but soon dismissed the amusing thought, also knowing that the people would just kneel to him and secretly wonder why he was out this late at night. The girl, who Cai realised was certainly older than him now that she had got closer to his refuge between the lights, stopped walking, the fond smile on her face replaced by a contemplative and wistful expression.

"You know, Marcus, it's not his fault that the Angel of the Black Sun chose him. Besides, I think that it was King Xarius that was the problem, not the angel, and that Prince Caiellis shouldn't be stigmatised because of something he had no control over," she uttered, and the small boy looked confused. The girl glanced into the darkness where the prince was hidden, and the boy felt a small shudder of panic run through him as her bright brown eyes bored into the exact spot he was in. He held his breath, hoping it was just a coincidence the girl had gazed in this direction, and to break the awkward silence that had descended the older boy, probably James, pulled Marcus close and whispered conspiratorially to the youth, although his words were loud enough for everyone including the prince to hear. "We both know that Liana fancies Prince Caiellis anyway, don't you, Big Sis?"

"I do not!" the girl exclaimed indignantly, her cheeks lighting up in an embarrassed blush that reflected the redness of Caiellis's cheeks when he heard it, breaking off her staring into the shadows and turning away from her family members. "Yeah, yeah. Why else would you be going red?"

"I'm not going red!" she insisted, and the other teenager laughed, "Marcus, that's why she wants to join the Mage Corps of the army, so that she has a greater chance of seeing the prince."

"James, I've told you a thousand times, I'm joining because I want to make a difference to the kingdom, and my Summoning is powerful enough according to my teachers," Liana sighed, looking back into the darkness and making Cai almost certain that she was purposefully glancing at him, though if so he was glad that she was keeping that information to herself. The girl reminded him of Annia, who Caiellis realised he hadn't thought about since the abduction – neither had he spared any time for Freya or Kaled past their short communication with him in the Resistance Headquarters. Cai knew that his father had pulled out the Lucaelian students before declaring war in order to not endanger them, and pondered whether the Welkalites were doing the same – if so, it was likely that he would be seeing Kaled again, as Sergeant Tarkos had mentioned wanting the fifteen year old to join the Ja'an Guard. Too caught up in his thoughts, the prince had failed to notice the happy family leaving, and now that the coast was clear he walked into the middle of the street, darting between the illumination of the street-lights.

Caiellis contemplated whether his father or brother ever wanted to just fade into the background and observe around the world around them like he did, but soon decided against it – being the king, there was too much pressure on his father for the man to be able to just slip away like Cai was doing now, and Alex was far more confident than him and enjoyed interacting with the people instead of just watching them, which the boy supposed was a bit creepy but did like to sometimes pretend that the fate of the entire kingdom might not weigh on his shoulders – even if he didn't ascend to the throne, he would still probably become a Light-bearer of influential general serving under his big brother, and his royal blood meant that he was expected to be extremely successful. His mind went back to the dream realm that had ensnared him – the cousin whose name and face he had forgotten would have become queen, and although in that scenario he was still a Lucerna, the fact that the possibility of ruler-ship wasn't upon him made the dream even more enticing.

A large black raven cawed and landed next to him, pecking at some crumbs on the ground before flapping away, and Cai gazed at the animal. He knew he should return to the Sola Atria – he had been out for over six hours already, at first obtaining some fruit to eat as he was starving, but it was a testament to the potency of his camouflaging magic that his father's soldiers hadn't yet been sent to fetch him, though he doubted the man would want to see him after their argument. He also knew that his "Uncles" were aware that he wasn't stupid or careless, so would be fine with him being unaccounted for a while – though if his brother had awakened the older boy would surely be worried.

Cai stepped forward just as a spiking pain lanced through his head, a simultaneous pounding and burning torment that increased in intensity every second. He fell to his knees, holding his head as the familiar sensation of agony overcame him, like what he had felt in the presence of the Welkalite representatives in the Scholaria Magnus negotiations, but ten-times more intense and paralysis-inducing. The boy had experienced semi-regular migraines before throughout his time in the civil war, with the time period of around two months between them, though the last one had definitely been because of Tradax and his allies, and he thought it had stopped when the war had finished. Only his brother and "Uncles" were aware of it, as he had begged them not to tell Marik, insisting that because they had stopped his father shouldn't have to worry about them, though that had been before he finally met him and now knew dad wouldn't care.

Cai thought they had stopped plaguing him, and had put the last one down to the demonic magic of the Welkalites. Evidently he had been wrong, and automatically gasped in pain, pushing his head into his knees in a vain attempt to lessen the pain that kept getting more and more excruciating. His mind beat with pulses of agony that combined with the constant fire in his brain in sickening bolts of torment. He needed his big brother here; Alex had always known what to do to comfort him and save him from them, as when the migraines happened all his thoughts became jumbled up in the pain, and he couldn't focus them. His mind painfully reminded his that his sibling was bed-ridden, and Cai resolved to suck it up before his determination was instantly erased by a blast of pure suffering that resounded through his mind like he was in the heart of an explosion.

_It hurts … I can't _he desperately thought, not entirely sure whether he was laid on the ground or his head was still pressed into his arms, as he rolled in the pain. He needed to get away from it, so Cai did the only logical thing and looked inside his mind, attempting to flee to the Mind Realm and away from the pain. That was a mistake. The moment he partook in frantic introspection, pulsing waves of pure torment reverberated through him, the usually short journey to the Mind Realm a shuddering display of intrusive and oppressive rings of light that shot past the floating form of the boy. Then after the agonising light came the darkness, consuming him in a wave of pure blackness that flooded down his mouth and nose, much like when he almost drowned within his mind undertaking Orzhova's trial at the academy.

He couldn't breathe, and was washed back to the ground, the strange physics of his torturous mind making nausea flow throw him as the liquid darkness starved his lungs of air. Cai could hear booming laughter, the malevolent and demonic noise freezing him in place as the abyssal water rushed around him, and the sudden feeling of being watched by sinister powers gnawed at him before once again the pain overrode all other sensations. The boy felt a hand, gloved in leather and with the pale fingers bare, grab onto his shoulder and yank him backwards, out of the torrential passage of gloomy fluid. He coughed violently, hacking up half-solid black globules in a way comparable to what Alexander had suffered through because of Aksua's curse, and although the rational part of his psyche tried to tell him it wasn't real it was soon drowned under unrelenting agony.

Caiellis was forcefully thrust out of the Mind Realm, tumbling back into his physical body as another spike of mental pain rammed through his head. This was by far the worst migraine he had ever experienced – he could recall some pretty awful ones, especially right after his mother had been killed, but the amount of pain he was being caused now was the most intense his fragile body had ever undergone. The boy couldn't see anything past the street-light he blearily stared up at, the pounding in his head exacerbated by the illumination that he knew wasn't normally this harsh; it seemed to burn through his retinas like a magical beam of destructive light, scorching every nerve ending in its path. He shut his eyes to escape the radiance, but soon reopened them as the dancing circles of shadows spun vindictively behind his eyelids and the maddening laughter sprung into life again. The burning light was preferable to that.

The youngster felt his hands already compressed into fists, the nails digging into the skin and almost drawing blood he was squeezing that hard. He felt the numerous tiny trickles of blood falling down his face and past his lips, infusing his tongue with the taste of copper as he whimpered in fresh pain. The blood was coming from his nose, which had happened before, and more disturbingly his eyes, which had not, crimson tears much thicker than the usual water variety dripping out of them and down his cheeks. He could hear the Black Sun crackling when it met the blood, but luckily he wasn't unintentionally emitting any mana other than that – a blast of murderous Black mana or purifying White could kill everyone in the vicinity if he wasn't careful, though the migraine prevented him from getting a hold of his magical energies.

A face appeared in his line of sight, the still-youthful features of the guard distorted by the unbearable luminescence and twisted into something much more sinister menacing by the baleful shadows that occasionally broke out from where they had been behind his eyelids and wreaking havoc with his vision, making the boy see the two opposites of light and darkness combined, which the former more potent in this case – he had no doubts that if he shut his eyes, as well as the laughter and the dark there would be streaks of shining light, but soon stopped thinking hard after another lance of torment was driven into his mind.

"**LORD CAIELLS! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?**" the fresh-faced guard asked, and in spite of the reality his voice was only raised ever so slightly in urgency it slammed through Cai's ears, making his skull feel like it was rattling as it shuddered into his eardrums and brought on another burst of torture. He knew he would have whimpered, but couldn't hear anything over the words echoing extremely loudly in his head, swatting down any resistance he tried to put up to the pain. He felt strong and armoured arms wrap around his thin body and lift him of the floor. The sudden shift in altitude summoned more white knives of agony that repeatedly stabbed his brain, and he stifled a scream of agony despite the fact that holding it in brought on more.

His head slumped against a broad chest, and Caiellis allowed himself to think that he was in his big brother's embrace and that the older boy would take him away from the pain like he always did – or perhaps it was Uncle Tristram, who also knew how to react when a migraine ripped through his youngest charge. His mind then turned to the possibility of his father, before it dismissed it. The option of dad holding him didn't equate to a feeling of safety so was removed by his unconscious mind, who instead presented him with more pain and also the identity of the youthful guard alternating between Alexander and Tristram, though the former stayed much longer than the latter. Cai inhaled deeply, halting the cycle of frantic hyperventilation that he didn't even realise had started and wouldn't have been doing any good for his pained brain, though that was what usually occurred in the worst of his migraines – if he knew he had been breathing fast then he would have stopped it.

_Right, Caiellis Noctis Lucerna, everything is fine now, _he told himself, repeating the mantra over and over again as the pain slowly faded. Though the worst was over, it still damned hurt, but at least he was regaining control. Cai was immensely concerned that another migraine had resurfaced after the war, as Tybalt had said that it had been his incredibly receptive mind and the fact that he had a huge amount of mana inside of him that caused him the pain – the Hierarch had explained that he believed the amount of suffering being caused was picked up on by him and transformed into agony by his mind, which was reinforced by the fact they happened more regularly and with much more intensity just after they escaped from violent battles, or other significant engagements came about elsewhere in the kingdom.

He had found a correlation between the dates of migraines he remembered – in other words the worst ones - and particularly brutal battles. It disturbed him that it had just sprang out of nowhere, as usually they started by building up background pain that was tolerable and then exploding into agony later. Maybe it something to do with his other strange talent of being able to sense impending violence just before it happened, though that never came with pain, just a sensation of anticipation and fear, and sometimes other emotions. They normally did coincide with the migraines, but he had thought it had stopped after the boys fought through Usnaan without him feeling any pain afterwards. Cai smiled grimly. _How could I ever become a king if I can't stop this from happening? I really am just pathetic._

He tried speaking, but the words just came out as a stifled whimper. Cai focussed his mind, forcing the pain to dissipate faster than usual and regaining control, walls of resolve crashing down within his mind.

"Where are we going?" he asked, his voice soft and quiet and sounding too much like a weak child for his liking. He was Lucerna, whether he liked it or not, and would not be babied by guards. The young man carrying him looked down, and although the pain had made the awful incident feel like it had taken years, he could still see the restaurant the happy family had emerged from – they were still on the same street, which meant that it had only taken him a few seconds to recover from the migraine and even less time between now and the guard picking him up.

That was acceptable, he supposed. Amazement creased the guard's face at the almost immediate recovery of the prince, who he thought had been dying as blood ran from the boy's nose and mouth and his pale face had been screwed up in unrelenting pain. Another guard answered, a woman, young judging by her voice but faintly older than her taller companion, and she turned around, her face coloured with sympathy underneath reverence and respect, and not even a hint of fear which made the boy a bit happier. "We were going to take you to the Sola Atria, but en route was the rest of our squad and our battle mage may have been able to stabilise your condition, while went to the hall, my lord."

"Just call me Caiellis. And anyway, thank you, um..." he broke off, realising he didn't actually know the names of the guards that had just happened upon the stricken prince in the middle of the night – he had no idea if they actually helped him, but was going to assume that they did – the guard that still held him protectively had made him feel safer, reminding him of Alex and Tristram. The woman replied, "I am Gweneth, and my subordinate, who seems to be lost for words, is Armen."

"Thank you, Gweneth, Armen," Cai bowed his head, suffusing the statement with deep gratitude before looking Armen in the eyes, "And you can put me down now, please."

The young man blinked as his companion snickered, placing the prince on the floor, where he swayed unsteadily as the effort of having to walk sent pains through him – he was glad it was night time, because usually he was bed-ridden of forced to stay stationary for a few hours after a migraine, just like he would be if he had attempted Orzhova's trial in the day also, though not to the exhaustive extent of endeavouring to pass the Summoning. He ensured that he quickly hid the momentary weakness, though there was little to no point considering these guards had already seen him in the throes of the migraine. Instead of what Cai thought, which was that Armen and Gweneth would have lost respect for him after seeing one of the heirs to governing the entire kingdom in that state, which he deemed pathetic, in fact seeing him refuse to give in to the fragility of his body after the incident made them admire him even more.

Caiellis then detected the presence of two familiar people coming round the corner, belatedly realising that in the pain he hadn't been able to control his mana and as such had accidentally de-activated the concealment spells. He didn't think that it was a bad thing though, as at least it wasn't dad coming to look for him. Background pain still pulsed within his head, but it was bearable and a far cry from the overwhelming force of earlier. Tristram was the first to sprint past the street corner, followed a few seconds later by a grumbling Tybalt who was muttering that he was: "Too old for this kind of thing..."

"Cai! Are you alright?" the Guardian asked quickly, both of the Light-bearers having perceived his distress and recognised it to be the sign of a migraine that the youngest prince hadn't suffered for many months now, though one much worse.

The boy looked dramatically more pale than usual, which was a feat in itself, his skin white like that of a ghost's, or one of the ancestral spirits that very specialised mages could call upon, though it was forbidden to force the souls of the dead to fight for you so that meant only a few departed with debts to repay appeared alongside the legions of Lucael, though all refused to speak about the path beyond. Faded tracks of blood were evident on his white and gaunt face, though the bleeding had stopped. Tristram swiftly made his way to Cai's side, putting a supportive arm around his shoulders and feeling the boy gratefully place his weight on the man – despite the illusion of strength he tried to keep up, simply remaining upright was a battle in itself, one that he had been losing.

"I'm fine now. I had a migraine," Cai stated simply, leaning against Tristram's arm as the man gently pushed his chin up to the light, looking into his deep emerald eyes to see if it had caused any lasting damage.

Satisfied that the boy's eyes weren't glazed over, nor were the pupils dilated excessively, Tristram examined the rest of him, noting that the tracks of blood led from his eyes as well as his nose, which meant that the migraine must have been much worse than any he had experienced before. It was amazing that the kid was still standing after it, but knowing his migraines he would still be in quite a bit of pain, though hopefully nothing a bit of sleep could handle. He switched his tone to be more like an order, as Cai wasn't revealing everything but the boy knew he should be open after them, as the two men could only handle the situation if they had all the information at their disposal. Tristram knew the boy would be more at ease in the presence of his big brother, but the older boy had been asleep after he had gone to check on him following his dispute with Marik, and Alexander still needed to recover.

He was glad that Tybalt had the foresight to dismiss the guards that had fortuitously discovered the stricken prince, meaning that his interrogation of the youngster could begin without them overhearing it and therefore giving Caiellis a greater incentive to properly open up. He started with a bit of conversation while the two left the area, trying to make the kid feel more comfortable, "I thought you had stopped having them when the war ended."

"So did I. Evidently not," Cai kept his statements brief, an obvious sign to the two men that merely talking sent pain through the boy's head. Tybalt then stepped in: "Look, I know it hurts Caiellis, but you have to tell us exactly what happened. You know the drill."

"It just arose for no reason. There was no warning of it, no build up of pain or anything, but it was by far the worst that has transpired," the boy started, rubbing his eyes sleepily and smiling wryly, "I thought I was going to die. I couldn't think properly, like what usually happens, and I couldn't move either. I tried to go into the Mind Realm to get away from the pain, but that was a massive mistake as the pain was even more intense there. And it does still hurt now, but it is bearable" he stated clinically, though not mentioning the booming and demonic laughter inside his head and hoping that his honesty with the rest of it would stop them from seeing that he wasn't quite saying everything.

"You may not look it, but you are a tough lad," Tristram grinned, and Cai took the compliment silently, already knowing that it wasn't true. Tybalt added, "Normally you wouldn't be able to speak that well after it, so it seems that instead of the agony being spread out it was more condensed into a very small period of time."

Caiellis nodded, seeing sense in the words although he didn't quite think that was the only reason, "I just wonder why it occurred. I thought they were only supposed to happen when there was large amounts of violence or death."

"It could be that you have caught an illness of some sort – you have been out in the freezing cold of winter with just thin clothes and a scarf for _over six hours,_" Tristram chastised, and Cai looked glumly down at his feet. He hadn't realised that he had been out that long, and suddenly felt incredibly guilty and selfish – what if Alex had woken up while he was gone? He opened his mouth, and Tybalt cut in with: "Your older brother woke up temporarily a few hours ago – we moved him into a more comfortable room so that he could go to the bathroom in the night if he wanted – but he is now fast asleep. As you should be." Caiellis nodded, he did feel extremely tired, and although he was tempted to ask Tristram to take him to Alex's room, though his low temperature would probably just wake the older boy up so instead let the man take him to the small but cosy room connected to his own bathroom in the Sola Atria that had been given to him.

He almost fell asleep in Tristram's arms, briefly wondering what percentage of his life he had spent being carried around by those stronger than him and unconcerned by his weightless form. He sleepily opened his eyes as he heard hushed voices, blinking tiredly when he realised that he had in fact drifted off, and saw his father's concerned face staring down at him. Cai dearly hoped that the Light-bearers weren't going to tell the man about his migraines – they had promised not to only if they truly did stop, but since another had resurfaced dad would most likely be told. Hopefully his Uncles obeyed his wishes and kept quiet; he didn't want his dad to have another reason to not blame himself for Cai's anger. He felt himself being placed up warm covers, a hand fondly ruffling his hair before a door creaked shut and he was left alone in the night.

.*.*.*.

Though the fact that the short sleep removed the aching pain in his head didn't reduce the malevolence of the event, it made Caiellis feel a lot better as he finished the fruity breakfast he had been eating in his brother's room, the older boy snoring loudly but peacefully. Despite the fact that he had only slept until approximately eight in the morning, he felt refreshed, but couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was going to change this day. That something unfortunately wasn't the eternal gloominess, and Cai rolled his eyes when he opened the curtains to be greeted by darkness, but at least it was still gently snowing which made everything seem nicer.

A loud and brisk knock rapped on the wooden door, and Cai suppressed a scowl at the volume of the noise, though his sibling didn't awaken. Expecting the person to let themselves in, he sighed when another knock resounded through the room, getting up out of the chair next to Alex's bed and opening the door.

"Lord Caiellis," someone in the uniform of the Civitas Sol guard that he didn't recognise saluted the bemused prince and bowed his head quickly in respect, "King Marik requests your presence in the council chambers of the Sola Atria." the man announced, and Cai nodded his head, saving the sarcastic comment brewing in his mind for himself. _There was no word of a strategic meeting today, although it is likely, but not this early in the morning. That probably means either my father wants to show me something or ask for my help, the former infinitely more likely. I'll indulge him for now, but if he starts an argument I refuse to have to deal with him for the rest of the day._

The man smartly twirled around and began to march towards their destination, and it occurred to Caiellis that this guard was trying to impress him – his golden and silver armour was polished to a mirror sheen, the vast majority of the snow he had collected in the short journey from the hall to the Ordo Medella hospital brushed off before knocking on the door. He didn't quite know what to say – Cai didn't want to disappoint the man by not mentioning it, but adversely didn't want to sound extremely awkward, as awkward statements were the only things coming to mind. He was certain that Alexander would have been able to say something to inspire the soldier, but idly commenting that the man's uniform looked nice would be more creepy and weird than anything. Cai elected to say silent, figuring that if he looked like he was deeply contemplating the nature of his summons then the man might forgive him. Or maybe the guard just liked to look presentable anyway, and didn't need him to notice.

Drifting off within his own thoughts, he blinked in surprise when he realised he was just stood outside the council hall, waiting silently at the door, and the guard had already left. _So much for complimenting him then. _He momentarily pondered whether he should knock or not, and settled for knocking once and then letting himself in. Dad was already sat at the head of the table, tapping his fingers on the desk in a vaguely impatient manner, and looked up at his son when he entered. The man's face twisted between two expressions – one of warmth and a slight bit of guilt, the other of determination and stubbornness. _Father o__r__ king? _Caiellis wondered as his father beckoned to the seat next to him, which the boy took, briefly examining the sheets on the desk before meeting the man's gaze.

"Caiellis. Good morning," the man began, noting that though his youngest had already adopted the blank expression he usually wore that gave nothing away, his green eyes narrowed for a split second, telling Marik to get on with it and do away with the meaningless pleasantries.

The king sighed, trying to ignore the niggling voices informing him that was he was doing was wrong and unbefitting of a loving and caring parent, especially since the revelation of the boy's migraines that still happened. He was annoyed at his Light-bearers and Alexander for not telling him that, though they were only following Cai's wishes. It made him feel awful that the boy had feared his censure that much that he wanted to hide his weakness from him, and what had he gone and done? He went and damaged the boy's already low self-esteem to the point where the only way Cai thought he could escape from the pressure was to cause himself pain. _How selfish I am..._ he thought, realising with a sick feeling that he actually preferred Caiellis in that way to how he was less than two weeks later.

"What did you want me for?" Caiellis asked, his voice almost deadpan but coloured slightly with irritation, snapping Marik out of his reverie. The man almost snapped back, telling the boy not to use that tone with him, but suppressed the anger that swelled up.

"My son. I wanted you here to talk about three things – firstly, I have arranged for you and your brother to have two advisers each. As my father did with me and my own brother at the age of seventeen, so too will I with you. Each advisor has a specific role – first, the champion can act as your representative in duels and is a bodyguard and friend, while the other is more of an intellectual aid, relating to administration, management, information gathering and magic," Marik explained, carefully examining his son to see if the boy's expression changed at all, which it did not. Caiellis thought that he was perfectly capable of doing all those things himself, and would prefer to be alone and self-sufficient, but supposed that if the advisers didn't get in his way then he would have no cause to question his father's decision. The man continued, "I have already selected who they will be – I tried to keep them as close to you and your brother's age as possible, although there were none suitable that are the same age as you, as mine were. At least it was easy to find Alexander's."

"Leodred and Elizabex," Caiellis stated, and his father nodded proudly. It wasn't really that hard to deduce, considering they were the two that immediately came to mind when he thought about the descriptions Marik had given him. "I haven't done the same thing as your grandfather and choose people that you two had never met before."

"Who were your advisers?" the prince asked suddenly, which was a good sign – it meant that he was actually interested in taking part in the conversation rather than just staying blank and silent. Marik felt his cheeks light up in a bit of embarrassment, though if he noticed Caiellis gave no overt signs. "Well, my champion was Carlis, who fully agreed to this course of action."

"And the other?" Caiellis prompted after a few seconds of silence. Marik smiled, "Ahem, my other advisor was your mother, and that was how I met her."

Instead of laughing like Marik expected, his son kept his features locked within the cold mask he seemingly perpetually wore when not shouting at his father or speaking to his brother, though the man did know his son had emotions – despite the fact that he hadn't seen much of happiness. He could empathise with Caiellis, as the prince had definitely inherited that from himself, who often used to do the same at his age.

However, there was a glint of twinkling amusement in those expressive emerald orbs before his youngest hid it. "Anyway, though you may be sceptical of my decision making skills (_as you have informed me on numerous occasions_) I'm sure you will be pleased with who I have chosen. They are ready to meet you in the secondary meeting room when we have finished. That brings me onto my second point."

The monarch pushed a sheet of paper over to his son, who picked it up and quickly scanned it, his expression souring slightly before attempting to return to the blankness of before, which he couldn't quite manage. He glowered at his father for a second, repressing the spontaneous temptation to rip the sheet in half, and then reasoned with himself – despite preventing him from seeing his big brother, his exportation to Scientia Mos would allow him to get away from dad, which was a victory as far as he was concerned. _So I've won, _he thought, though it left him feeling hollow inside that he had driven his father to this. He couldn't deny that the arguments were petty, but the fact was they happened and both put their full force into it. He felt like apologising, but knew that would just make him seem even more small-minded and spiteful. Instead he tried a different tact, "So you're just sending me away again. But to be honest I'm surprised that you trust me enough with control of one of the metropolis's armies."

Marik nodded, glad his son wasn't arguing for once, and nearly regretting his choice – his son had only spent just more than four years of his life with him, and in most of the time he had been a small child, and now he was just getting him out of the way a second time in the past fortnight. He passed the boy a small metal device; the mana communicator would allow him to contact Caiellis should he need to before the large scale communication devices were finished – Marik told himself that his son would only be away for a few days at the very most before he saw him again and thrust the boy into another war.

On one hand Caiellis would be an indispensable asset to the war effort, as would his older brother if he recovered enough to be able to help, but on the other his son was still only thirteen years old. The boy accepted the proffered device without comment, already busy thinking about what he would need for the monorail journey later today – because he was going to arrive in the late evening, he was planning to visit his grandparents while his adjutants went to the main hall of the City of Books, and then get into the swing of things tomorrow.

"You'd better take good care of Alex," he told the man, his tone full of seriousness that gave Marik no illusions about what would happen should he fail in that task. The king snorted, "Caiellis, while we may not see eye to eye on things, you sometimes seem to forget that I am you and your brother's father. I will make sure Alexander recovers fully." The two stared at each other, their eyes locked in a battle for dominance, and eventually Cai broke away, his green eyes losing their defiance. "When he says he is alright he's almost definitely lying." he murmured, wondering whether he should actually tell his brother that he was leaving or make dad do it instead. No, it was his duty as a sibling to tell the other boy, though he knew how unhappy Alex would be about this new development. Actually, he hadn't yet informed the older boy about the resurgence of the migraines, but would maybe conceal that titbit of news, as he didn't want his brother worrying even more about him instead of focussing on his own recuperation.

"He is not the only one," Marik muttered, "And that leads on to our final topic: your awful migraines. Anything you want to say about them?"

"No, actually. I don't," Cai spontaneously blurted out, standing up from his seat and turning around. He didn't want the man to know about that. Why did Tristram and Tybalt have to go and tell him? A large hand encircled his forearm, firmly preventing his movements, and he turned around, glaring at his father, who commanded: "Sit down, Caiellis. You shouldn't be afraid of telling me about your pain. If I had known you had that going on as well, I-"

"You're so damn predictable!" Caiellis shouted, releasing the anger that he hadn't noticed build up behind him because of his exile to Scientia Mos, the fact that the father who professed to love him would rather see him sent away instead of putting effort into mending their relationship. "Can you not remember what caused our argument last night? Are you an idiot? You really – arghh, let go! Dad, let go!"

Marik blinked in confusion as his son started frantically trying to pull away, pain clouding his youthful and cute features as he cried out, and then registered that his hand was clenched into a fist, crushing Caiellis's fragile and thin forearm with full force and making the boy squirm. But for some reason he didn't let go until a few seconds later, requiring conscious effort to release his grasp on the arm. _Where was this urge to do violence to the boy coming from? _

He had definitely felt it before, starting from when he had exploded the night of Alexander's wounding and lifted the poor kid off his feet by his collar. It wasn't as if what Caiellis had just said was even that bad, it was just something a normal teenager would have said to their parent – something he would have said to his own father at a similar age and been beaten for it, although the pain inflicted by his son's grandfather was more detached and dispassionate, whereas this desire to hurt was fuelled by fiery anger. It probably didn't help that the boy's arm was still rejuvenating from the damage it had sustained from Aksua's horror snapping the bones. He felt disgusted with himself, and was hugely glad he hadn't grabbed Caiellis by the shoulders otherwise he could have found his hands wrapped around his _own son's _throat. Marik stood up, backing away from his son and knocking the chair over, raising his hands to show his son he wasn't going to hurt him any more.

To his credit, Caiellis didn't cry or whimper, just stared accusingly at his father like a wounded animal, his whole body tense and the birthmark on his cheek coruscating with arcs of purple and gold, showing Marik how close his son had been to using mana to try and break away, which also emphasised how scared the boy was of him, something that just shouldn't be. Marik and Emili had agreed to never hit their children, no matter how dire the misbehaving, deciding that words would make so much more of a difference. It was greatest shame in the entire world that the loving woman who sacrificed so much for everyone and had gone through so much pain to have children never got to see them grow up. _Dammit Marik! Focus on the situation at hand! Whether you would like to admit it or not, Emili is dead, and nothing you can do will change that! You can, however, act like a parent to your sons who are still living: such as little Caiellis, who you have just hurt!_

"Caiellis … I'm so …" he began, stammering nervously at the look of pure hatred his child gave him. The boy spat, "Save your words. Nothing you can say will help anything. I told you to never touch me again. I already know that you hate me, but if you ever, _ever, _touch Alexander in this way, then I will make you pay." Marik didn't doubt it, and all he wanted to do was pull his poor son into his arms and hug him close forever, but moving towards him would be a potentially fatal mistake. A melancholy expression meandered over his gaunt and pale face, and for a second Marik thought his youngest was either going to run towards him and bury himself in his father's arms, or explode into tears, or both, but instead the moment passed and Caiellis's face became blank again, and it broke Marik's heart.

"Don't expect to see me until after I get back from Scientia Mos," he stated robotically, turning away from his father as his limbs relaxed and the emotion poured off him in shuddering waves, "I'm going to go meet the advisers you requested for me, and then I will tell my older brother what is going to happen. Feel free to go see him first, but if I see you in there I'm not going in. Goodbye." He left, trying to stop tears from pouring down his face – _does dad really hate me that much? He's never been violent before … I don't blame him really. I would be disappointed in a child like myself, one who is too weak to do anything, one who is too weak to help his own brother. But that still doesn't excuse him, and if he touches Alexander while my big brother is still weak and can't defend himself then he will have hell to pay. _

Cai composed himself before entering the secondary hall, not wanting to have a bad first impression with those that he would have to work with in the future, and when he opened the door into the long room he gawked in happy surprise. Mysos Grandé and Jenna Bylae stood up from their seats, the former bowing deeply and reverently while the latter suppressed a smirk and did the same.

"Oh. Well I have to say I wasn't expecting you two," he grinned, feeling something akin to actual happiness as the familiarity of his seconds in command, "Mysos, Jenna. How are you?"

"Honoured, my lord," the former spoke first, the tall fifteen year old reminding him of the Scholaria Magnus not too long ago and his first Summoning of Orzhova. He was glad to have his and Iridis's swords at his side, though hoped the Seraph of the Sword wouldn't be too offended by what his dark angel had said to her before annihilating the Sister of Wrath. He looked over at Jenna; the elder sister of Annia's sea-green eyes were twinkling with amusement, prompting to remember the girl that he supposed had become his friend. She then spoke, "The same as Mysos, though I think it's going to be entertaining working with you two."

"And why is that?" Mysos asked, his face clouding with perplexity. Jenna laughed, "Well, firstly you are both still kids, and second Cai is one of the most interesting Lucaelians I have ever met, though if he uses those puppy dog eyes on me then I'll have to kill him."

"That is "Lord Caiellis" to you, or do you Yentarians know nothing of respect?" Mysos bristled at the perceived disrespect, and Cai sighed. He was just recalling how obsessed the older boy was with protocol, similarly to his father and most probably his two older sisters. He wondered what Xathan thought of his son's secondment to the prince – the Guardian of Cassida Principia had been one of the Light-bearers vehemently against killing him as a child which he reasoned was good, though didn't really feel anything negative or positive to those that had advocated his death. "And we are not children."

"Oh really?" Jenna asked, and Cai could tell she was enjoying herself by pretending to fully throw herself into the bickering, "Your nation, like mine, considers those at the age of eighteen to be adults, not fifteen, or, even younger, thirteen. Your beloved prince is even more of a kid than you."

"My lord! I request that you find a new advisor!" Mysos declared, and Cai smiled, feeling the fear and sadness he had felt when his father attacked him evaporating away from him – he was glad that he wasn't wearing a short-sleeved top, as he could feel a hand-shaped bruise forming underneath his sleeves. "Don't be silly, Mysos. Jenna is just teasing you. And please stop calling me "lord"."

"But it is proper protocol," he half-stated, half-whined, and Caiellis walked closer to him, the muscular but still teenage-proportioned boy quite a bit taller than him although not as tall as Alexander or the twins, though Jenna was slightly shorter than the Principian. He then deployed the famous puppy dog eyes that he hadn't utilised in a while, looking up into Mysos's brown orbs. "Mysos. I don't want you to call me anything other than Caiellis or Cai, understand? I'm no more important than you are."

Though the older boy clearly disagreed, he nodded, taken aback by his liege's seriousness of tone despite his wide eyes. Cai turned to Jenna, who was relatively impressed, and said: "I'm already aware of Mysos's combat capabilities, having fought him at the Scholaria Magnus, but I don't even know what your Summoning is. Could you demonstrate it for me?"

The Yentarian nodded, breathing in deeply and drawing Blue mana from the air into her, swirling contrails of disturbed air flecked with flecks of sapphire light flowing around her.

"As you already know, my little sister Annia's Summoning Quioni is a water elemental," Jenna explained, her voice not even tinged by the strain of the magic, although Caiellis detected that her Sancturia creature was of a medium mana cost. "My Summoning is also and elemental, although Ciewan is a manifestation of the air itself. Ciewan, come forth!" she cried, clapping her hands together as a humanoid shape emerged from the roiling tempest of air, curling around his Summoner and regarding the two Lucaelians curiously, though there was no malice in the gaze. The insubstantial creature was mostly made up of the air, though was quite large, and blue light shone from within it.

"Why have you Summoned me, Jenna?" he asked, his voice a mixture of hissing wind and a quizzical, sing-song tone. The young woman grinned as it flowed around her, "Caiellis just wanted to assess my Summoning."

"Is that so?" the elemental replied, cocking his cloud-head to the side and making to move towards the prince, "What do you think then, Host of Light and Darkness?"

Cai narrowed his eyes at the name the creature gave him, and responded tersely, "I imagine that you could be useful in hit and run engagements or ambushes, and as you are gaseous you could fit through small gaps. Your natural Blue mana could also help conceal your presence from those that would sense it. You are a much more subtle being than most Summonings, though I suppose that is to be expected from the magic of cunning."

"You can go now, Ciewan. Thank you for appearing," Jenna said, and her elemental bowed in a half mocking gesture to the prince. The boy made a "huh" noise and then turned to his lieutenants, saying: "I trust you are prepared for your departure tonight?"

"Yep. I am a master of logistics after all," Jenna joked as Mysos glowered at her, muttering, "Arrogant Yentarian," under his breath. Caiellis was quite surprised at his father's choices, though he had to admit they were very good: Mysos was still not yet an adult, though Cai postulated that he was actually younger than the other boy, whilst Jenna was a Yentarian and Lucaelians naturally distrusted the other nations. He was sure that there were quite a few people he had never met before that would have wanted to become his champion or advisor given the chance. Though he couldn't help but find Mysos a bit infuriating.

.*.*.*.

Alexander was awake again, trying to avoid the pitying gazes of the Ordo Medella doctors, his father and Tybalt as the former conducted a few tests on him.

"Are you feeling alright, champ?" Marik asked, though the familiarity seemed quite forced, as if the man was attempting to break the tension in the room or appeal to his eldest, suggesting that something had happened between him and Caiellis again.

"Yeah, I'm good," Alex replied, though he knew full well that he wasn't – the wounds had been worse than originally envisioned, and though they would still recover he needed to get away from the pity they were drowning him in before he cracked. Besides, it wasn't physical harm that was the problem – nothing his body had sustained would leave permanent damaged, but the emotional hurt was killing him. He just wanted to cry, to be left to face his fears alone, to let out all of the anguish he felt at being violated and fed upon by the vampire, however he wasn't willing to show it in front of those who cared about him. At least his little brother wasn't here – though the boy didn't make him feel pathetic or like an animal on display, he never wanted Cai to see him weak for his sake, as the boy would start blaming himself. Plus, the squirt had already suffered enough wounded Alex for quite a while.

"Alex, don't lie to us. I can already tell that you aren't feeling good – you can share emotional pain with me, you know," Marik tried to assure him, sitting down in the chair beside the bed and turning to the boy, who squirmed under his father's calculating gaze.

"Really dad, I'm fine," Alex insisted, just as the images of Aksua began to assault him again, his body aching in empathetic and remembered pain. He pushed them back down, hoping no one had noticed the brief frailty – if they had, then there would be no chance of him being left alone to vent his emotions. The man the questioned: "Do you want anything? Food, water, a book?"

Though the question was filled with the desire to help Alex, the adolescent felt like he was under an interrogation, with the harsh and oppressive lights shining down on him and exposing his emotional torment that he needed to hide. Fury was beginning to rise up in him, though he didn't know where it was coming from – yes he was annoyed at being babied, but that didn't mean he should feel this angry – just as more of Aksua's seductive purrs filled the room with malevolence and making Alexander feel even more trapped, desperately needing them to leave before he exploded and he made them even more worried.

"I could use some time on my own," he admitted, as to be fair constantly having someone in his room was grating him a bit – but more pressing was the issue of the volcanic anger appearing from nowhere within him and the increased frequency of half-flashbacks of his abuse under the vampire. He knew it was getting worse when actual words started to push their way into his mind, like his tormentor was whispering in his ear and he was powerless to do anything about her, just like he had been powerless to stop her when the vampiress had fed.

"_Now we can enjoy ourselves._"

"Sorry, but that isn't happening, not after last time. You could just pick one of us to stay though," dad suggested, placing a calming hand on his son's shoulder when the boy started to breathe faster. _One is too much! _He almost shouted into Marik's face. But it wasn't his father's fault. It wasn't anyone's fault other than his own and Aksua's, and none of them deserved his rage. But he wanted them to leave. He wanted them to leave before he couldn't hold back his rage, his pain, any more. Alex pleaded: "Please guys, just leave me alone for a few minutes. I'll be fine."

Marik shot a dubious glance at the others in the room, waving his hand so that they backed off from the bed, hanging in the doorway in case Alex wanted any of them to stay. "Alexander, I've already made my terms clear. I know this is hard for you. I'll just stay if you want, or perhaps you would prefer Tristram or Tybalt. I could even fetch Caiellis if you really want. But I am not leaving you alone."

"Just get away from me! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Alex shouted as loud as he could, the volume of his voice augmented by a resonance derived from the mana he was emitting. A wave of White and Red washed out from him, forcing the others to cover their eyes as Marik instinctively raised a shield of defensive mana to protect them. The wave began to coalesce into a more solid form, and Aurelia Summoned herself, the angel reacting to his desire for freedom and a release by taking it upon herself to appear, though only with her wings furled did she fit in the medium-sized room. A Summoning could conjure itself into reality at the expense of its user's mana, although it was very rare that they did so – only demons reputedly forced themselves into the material plane through their Summoner, as normally the Sancturia creature didn't want to use their Summoner's mana.

"You heard Alexander. Leave now," Aurelia commanded, her angelic voice brooking no dissent and making Marik feel slightly scared, although more awed than that. He made to move towards his son, but the angel drew her swords, crossing them over each other and standing protectively in front of Alex, whose blue eyes were wide open in shock. "King Marik, that also includes you. I would not wish to force you to leave, but is the express wish of my Summoner that you do so. Get out. Now."

Marik held up his hands, shooting a worried glance at his son, who returned it with a weak smile, though his eyes still reflected the desperate need to be alone.

"Dad, I'll make it quick. I promise."

"Fine, Aurelia. I will let him have as much time as he wants alone. Alexander, I will wait outside. Call me if you need anything," he said softly, walking towards the door. The angel followed him, walking in a way she didn't have to do often, and slammed the door shut behind her, ensuring that no one would enter.

By the time the door closed shut, Alex was fighting his urge to smash his fist through the wall. He had no idea where the anger was coming from, but he glad there were walls now separating him from the concerned and pitying faces on the other side.

At last, for the first time in two days (not counting dad briefly going to talk to the doctors and his breakdown then), he was finally alone. He got off the bed as more images attacked his mind, going into the bathroom and quickly stripping off the clean Medella clothes someone must have put on him when he was unconscious. He turned the shower on as hot as it would go, although each hospital room had a limit on the amount of water the patients could use. Alexander felt like he needed to cleanse his body, not realising the feeling of being sullied and corrupted wasn't physical, but mental.

Aksua … whispering in his ear as his body shut down to her lulling voice … pinning him down and undulating against him … scratching his skin open with her nails and biting his flesh, sucking the blood from within …

Even as the scalding water burned his skin, he could still feel the vampire's icy and unnaturally cold hands all over his body and it made him want to throw up. He grabbed the fragrant bar of soap on the stand underneath the shower head, starting to scrub frantically at his arms, his chest, his thighs, until the skin was painful and red. No matter what he did, how much flesh he tore off, he couldn't feel clean again.

Her groans of delight filled his ears as he was presented with the most terrifying image yet: Caiellis with the innocent and contented smile on his face as the vampire tore his big brother apart. Alex didn't want to blame his little brother, but it was hard knowing that the younger boy had just left him for dead.

_No, you disgusting idiot! How dare you blame poor Cai for your own weakness! Your little brother is not at fault! You shouldn't have let the vampire hurt you as much as she did!_

Tears of frustration were mixing with the water droplets on his face and he had no other option but to admit defeat. He sank to the floor of the bath, pulling his knees tightly to his chest in a way his little brother often did when the boy felt scared or alone. Alexander buried his face and weakness behind them, hoping to muffle the sobs so that no one would know, despite the reality that there was no way they could be heard by anyone else. He lost track of the time, but was still crying when the water shut off, leaving him shivering, cold, and alone.

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><p>New Summonings in this chapter:<p>

Jenna Bylae: Air Elemental

* * *

><p><em>Alright, well I originally wanted Cai to depart in this chapter, but there are still couple of scenes to go and I didn't want it absurdly long. If you are bored with all the emotional stuff, then I'm sorry, but I promise it will become more action packed soon!<em>


	21. Kaleidoscope Heart

_Kudos to TheDarkSoverignOfLight for the awesome name of this chapter!_

Caiellis stepped quietly into the Ordo Medella hospital, smiling shyly at the pleasant young receptionist who bowed her head and then waved back. He distractedly thought that if his big brother had been up and active, then he would almost definitely be flirting with her right now, though felt no inclinations to do so himself. Cai felt a jolt of panic when he entered the building proper, sensing a very large build up of Red and White mana on the corridor exclusive to Alexander, telling him that the older boy had Summoned – but what for? Why? Was he in danger?

The prince ascended the stairway quickly, almost tripping and tumbling down them when he put too much pressure on his wounded arm on the banister. Though he knew he needed to be quick, a kind of sick curiosity overcame his urgency and he pulled back the sleeve, a large hand-shaped bruise alternating coloured with alternating throbbing red and aching purple and black imprinting on the pale skin of his thin forearm. Cai then realised that his father would probably be with Alex, and despite his need to make sure his brother was alright the thought filled him with fear. Yes, while the man may have looked apologetic and crushed by guilt, it hadn't stopped the actions, and Cai didn't want to take any more chance in case he became seriously hurt. Again he wished he had been gifted with a frame more similar to Alex's and their dad's so that he could fight off Marik without having to use mana.

Then the emergency issue of Aurelia entering reality once again pushed itself to the front of his mind, and he shot to the required corridor. He skidded to a halt when he saw his father, Surgeon-General Mortan, Choirmaster Esmelde, and Hierarch Tybalt stood dejectedly outside the doorway, but their presence was soon eclipsed by the awe-inspiring figure of the Warleader blocking the entrance to his sibling's room, the angel a huge beacon of mana in his mind. Cai then perceived that the situation had been going on for quite a while, as otherwise Marik would still have been shouting furiously at Aurelia. Dad appeared drained, though whether that was a combination of hurting his youngest and then being prevented from seeing his eldest – as that was what had evidently happened – or just the latter was a mystery to the youngest Lucerna.

"What's going on?" he directed the question outwards, a general inquiry that anyone could answer. As he predicted, Marik opened his mouth before staring at Cai with pure disgust at himself, and Aurelia took the chance to interject and explain: "Young Caiellis, your brother requires some time alone. I Summoned myself so that I could give him that."

Cai nodded, and walked towards the angel, who shook her head sadly, "I apologise. Not even you may see him."

"Don't be stupid, Aurelia. I am his little brother. Of course I can go see him," the boy stated it like it was an undisputed fact, causing Marik to raise a bewildered eyebrow – what made Caiellis think that he would be allowed in if Alexander's own father, the king of Lucael, wasn't? The angel turned round to block him, her fiery eyes full of uncertainty, and Caiellis met them with his own, hoping his green orbs conveyed his utter determination to enter the room and ensure his brother was fine, and that nothing would stop him – not even a First Sisterhood angel.

"He's going to kill me for this," the angel sighed in a very uncharacteristic and human manner, and stepped slightly out of the way of the door. "But only Prince Caiellis may enter. The rest of you can wait until Alexander wishes to no longer be by himself."

"What? That is ridiculous!" Marik bellowed, moving threatening towards Aurelia, who stared at him impassively, reminding the king of his own angelic Summoning, who barely ever reacted to anything with passion. A small hand was placed over his forearm, the arm it was attached to point accusing at the angel, and Marik felt a calming energy flow through him, though the hand wasn't emitting any mana – it was the significance of the gesture that mattered. He was shocked that his son would actually touch him after what he had just done to the boy, but when Caiellis's eyes met his he realised that the only reason the prince had done so was to shut him up.

"Dad, don't argue, please. I will make sure that Alex is alright. And then I'll see if I can convinced him to let you in, ok?" Caiellis's eyes were steely but sympathetic, leaving Marik quite proud of his smallest son, though he was still angry at the boy being permitted entry but not him, though he supposed that if there was anyone that knew Alexander really well, it would be his little brother. He backed down when he noticed the almost imperceptible faint glimmer of fear in the boy's expressive eyes, although Caiellis had obviously tried to hide it away.

"Alright, my son. And I am sorry about earlier," he added, quite awkwardly, though his youngest's expression didn't change because of the apology.

"Thank you, Aurelia," he bowed his head and intoned the words, fusing them with gratitude at the act – something must have been quite bad for her to Summon herself into the material plane if Alex's desire to be alone had been potent enough to requisition such an act, and moved past the imposing angel and into the room. It was empty, which suggested that his older brother would be in the bathroom, and he could hear the slow _drip-drop _rhythm of water indicating that the shower or taps had been run. He crossed the thresh-hold to the door, and knocked timidly on it. No response.

"Alex?" he asked, knocking again and then opening the door. Alex was so caught up in his own misery that his little brother was halfway across the room before he registered that he was no longer alone. He dragged the towel that was hung over the side of the bath around him, the fabric still dripping with cold water because he had forgotten to remove it in his haste to clean himself. Alexander huddled behind the shower curtain, hoping his little brother would go away and wouldn't see him in this state, though the rational part of his mind told him there was no chance of that happening.

Instead of his brother's poor rendition of Lucaelian hymns and songs that Alex usually hummed whilst he was in the shower or just getting dry, muffled sobs emanated from behind the cyan shower curtain. When Cai reluctantly slid the cloth to the side, his brother's state was enough to crush his heart to a pulp, just like it had done when the older boy had thought he was still with the vampire in the middle of the purification ritual. However, this somehow seemed even worse. Alex quickly turned his head towards the wall, hoping to hide his tears from his little brother, but the effort was fruitless. Between the terrifying memories and the shivers that wracked his already wounded and huddled body, he couldn't stop shaking and his ragged breathing was making his already damaged ribs throb as the lungs scratched against them.

Life was so subjective sometimes, the younger Lucerna marvelled, thinking that Alexander always looked so big when he was on his feet, like an invincible and strong big brother that was impossible to bring down, but he looked so frail and small wrapped up by the towel in the bath. He briefly wondered if he appeared that way to other people, and that was why they felt protective of him.

"Alex? Hey..." he reached out a tentative hand to his brother, but involuntarily jumped back the second he touched the skin – despite the older boy releasing a large amount of fiery Red mana, Alex was ice cold to the touch, and still dripping with water that had turned cold. Cai snapped into protective mode, pulling out another towel from the stand and wrapping around his brother's shoulders, who was still stuck in a vain attempt to conceal his tears. Trying to offer comfort, Caiellis rested his arm over the back of Alex's neck and shoulders, but the elder Lucerna wincing underneath his touch increase the younger boy's worry tenfold. The angry red patches of skin scattered across his brother's arms didn't help assuage him, and Cai pondered whether Alex could have fallen over.

"What's wrong, big brother? Did you hurt yourself?" Cai asked in the most calming and adorable tone he could muster, and Alexander rolled his head against his knees in a negative gesture as he concentrated on getting his breathing under control. How had his little brother got in here? Wasn't Aurelia supposed to be guarding the door? Cai could feel his sibling shaking underneath his touch, and used his other hand to rub gently against Alexander's towel-clad bicep.

"Alex, you are freezing! Can you stand up?" he inquired, though his brother's head was still buried in his knees so Cai couldn't see his eyes for any insight into what Alex was thinking, although it quite clearly had something to do with overwhelming sadness.

"Don't w-wanna..." the older boy forced through chattering teeth, trying to stifle more tears and dearly wishing Caiellis didn't have to see him like this. Cai responded back, "Well, if you stay in there your condition is just going to get worse."

"Don't c-care..." he muttered. Caiellis sighed sadly and rested his head on his brother's shoulder, listening to the rhythm of his breathing that was occasionally replaced by suppressed sobs. "Come on bro, talk to me. Are you in pain? Do you need any healing, or medication? I can heal you if you don't want anyone else to come in..." he drifted off.

"N-no. J-just w-wanna be alone," Alexander insisted, attempting to turn away from his little brother, though there was no more room to escape to in the bathtub. He idly realised that Caiellis had just got in whilst still clothed, so would have been moistened by the dregs of the shower still at the bottom of the tub, though of course it didn't faze the squirt. Cai sighed again, wishing that he could accede to the older boy's wishes for his sake. "Can't do that, big brother. Sorry."

Alexander's frustration was building up again, and it took all of his self-control and effort not to direct it at his innocent little brother, who he reminded himself was just trying to help. He wouldn't have left if the situation was reversed, but that still didn't stop him from trying. "Go, C-Caiellis. I'll b-be ou-out in a minute."

"Let me help you," Caiellis sat up and moved round to face his brother, for once glad that he was so small, otherwise the manoeuvre wouldn't have been possible, what with how large his big brother was and how much space he took up.

"Just leave, Caiellis!" Alex yelled, raising his head and threateningly shooting daggers at his little brother, who didn't move and just glared back defiantly. "Fine, if you don't want to talk to _me_, then I'll go get dad."

Alex paled instantly, his anger turning to fear. When Cai started to rise to his feet, he threw and arm out and latched onto his brother's wrist. The boy hid a grimace at the force of the grasp, though luckily the older boy was holding his right arm instead of his left. He wasn't going to reveal what Marik had done to anyone, and just wanted it to die down – if his brother found out then Alexander would make a massive deal of it and wouldn't concentrate on his own recovery. "No, Cai, please don't!"

"Why not?" he quirked an eyebrow at his older brother's reaction, though was secretly glad Alex would rather have him here than their father. Another flood of tears wanted to cascade down the older boy's face, so he pre-emptively turned it away from Caiellis, though the kid could still clearly see. "He can't know, ok? P-please d-don't tell him, Cai. Please..."

Fresh tears began to slide out of the whirlpool of blue emotion that Alex's eyes consisted of, meandering down his cheeks and infusing Caiellis with a guarding instinct that made him determined to help his big brother, as the older boy had always done in the past – and still did. He sat down on the side of the tub, trying to gently prise Alex's large fingers from digging into his wrist, otherwise he would have two hand-shaped bruises before the day's end, but the effort was pointless – though at least he wasn't squeezing as hard as dad had been, and Cai could forgive his big brother because of his condition and evident need for comfort, despite his protestations and desire to be alone. "Ok, I won't say anything. You know you can trust me. But you've got to tell me what is going on, alright? You've got to let me help you."

Alex belatedly realised that he was crushing his little brother's fragile arm, though Cai wasn't complaining, and released it in favour of wrapping his arms around his knees again and huddling them to his face. Cai sighed for the third time, knowing that now was good a time as ever to launch his interrogation, and knew that his big brother was exceptionally obstinate in telling people his problems, though in that he echoed his younger sibling's fortification building.

"Are you having flashbacks again?" he asked quietly, though there was no response. Seeing his big brother as broken and destroyed as this made him wish he had killed Aksua himself, given her a death much more painful than the one she had suffered in Akroma's Vengeance, before removing the brutal thoughts from his mind, knowing it was just his desire to lash out at seeing Alex hurt speaking and that he didn't wish to inflict pain, just justice. Besides, there was another purpose much more deserving of agony than the vampire. Caiellis reached out and draped a third towel over the hard floor right next to the bath, idly wondering why the bathroom had so many of them. "Come on, Alex. Let's get you out of there. I can't do it on my own, ok? You're too big. You're going to have to work with me."

"Not c-clean yet," Alex mumbled blankly, though the nature of the words scared his younger brother, who replied with an incredulous: "Not clean? Judging by the fact that the water has been shut off, you have been in here for over half an hour, Alexander. Come on, look at me big brother," Cai gently jostled his brother's shoulder, hoping that the larger boy would focus on him instead of the haunting thoughts probably going through his mind and imposing themselves on his vision.

After a few seconds of silence, Alexander finally turned his head towards the youngster, his eyes filled with a desperate need for the thirteen year old to understand. "I t-tried, l-little b-brother. S-still in my s-skin. I t-tried to r-rub it out, b-but it's s-still there. Still n-not clean..."

He loosed the grip around his knees enough to lean backwards slightly, exposing his chest and some of his legs and revealing his attempts at scrubbing the skin raw. Cai's jaw fell open, and the silence in the room drew out. The boy was reluctant to break it, but gasped: "Oh angels, Alex … What did you do?"

Cai was horrified – deep scratches marred his brother's muscular body, some deep enough to bleed, and he almost burst into tears himself. Alex had reopened some of the wounds he had sustained from the vampire, and the back of the towel that still covered his lower body was stained crimson.

"I'm so sorry, big brother, but I've got to get dad to see this. Just sit still and don't hurt yourself..." Cai made it to the door before a heavy thud resounded across the room behind him. He whirled around, and was presented by the heart-wrenching sight of Alex sprawled on the hard floor, frantically trying to get his injured limbs to respond, but just kept slipping on the third towel his little brother had placed on the floor a bit earlier. "Alex, stop!"

"Don't g-go, Caiellis! You c-can't tell him! P-promise me!" the middle Lucerna held a hand out towards his brother, wishing he was close enough to grab hold of him again and prevent the smaller boy from getting away, an easy enough task even in his present condition. Tears were blurring Alex's vision once more, in a way that before the past few days they hadn't done so for many years, and he was ready to abandon all hope – just curl up into a foetal ball and stop caring about what the rest of the world thought and did, but then a small hand clutched hold of his outstretched and much larger one. Alexander was anchored back to reality again.

"I'm not going anywhere, big brother. I'm right here, and I am not going to leave you, ok?" Cai uttered, and helped the older boy rest against the side of the bath, re-securing the towel around his back, and slowly sank down next to him, throwing his right arm around his shoulders despite the fact that it didn't even get all the way to the other side. Alexander continued to shake violently, but at least he made no move to push his sibling away, a victory in Caiellis's book. "Alex, how long have you been sat in the cold?" he asked, though didn't expect a proper response – he wasn't disappointed when the bigger teenager replied with a shake of his head, signalling that he didn't know.

The youngest prince gently pulled Alex towards him until his head was resting on Cai's shoulder, surprised at the lack of resistance but grateful for it. "I've got you, big brother. You're safe with me," he soothed, resting his cheek on Alex's spiky wet hair and ignoring the painful throbbing of his left arm. A loud knock on the door startled them both, and Cai automatically moved in front of his brother.

"Boys? Are you ok in there? It sounded like someone fell..." the concerned voice of their dad sliced through the air, and Cai repressed a sarcastic response back. He glanced back at his silent brother for conformation, and the unadulterated terror in the wide blue eyes served as that. "Everything is fine, dad," he swiftly answered back, "I just slipped when I was trying to help Alex get out of the shower. I think I underestimated just how heavy he is when leaning his full weight on me."

"Do you need any help with him?" Marik questioned, almost about to barge into the room but restraining himself. _Please don't let him come in, Cai, please – it's bad enough that you are seeing my like this, but dad? No way. _Alexander hoped that his eyes conveyed his desperation, when his little brother settled down back next to him and looked into them for the second time. "I can handle it, dad. We'll be out in a few minutes." That reminded him. He hadn't yet notified Alex of his departure. Shit.

"Ok, Caiellis. Make it quick, though. Alexander needs to be back in bed, especially after releasing do much mana," Marik said, and then waited a few seconds awkwardly to add: "I love you both."

"We love you too, dad," Cai replied smoothly, biting his lip at the utter hypocrisy of the statement coming out of the man but unwilling to let Alex perceive that, and also hoping the monarch couldn't detect the falisty of the words. Both brothers breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the man's footsteps faded away from the doorway. Caiellis turned back to Alex, who looked immensely glum but no longer panicking, but still shivering, and a half smile worked its way onto his features. "Your secret is safe with me, big brother. I promise."  
>Alex let his head fall back on his brother's bony shoulder again, feeling completely exhausted now that the exertion of Summoning Aurelia caught up with him after his desperate panic. Cai tightened his grip around his stricken sibling, wishing he could do something more to help and considering gently humming the reassuring tunes of the <em>Canticia Lux, <em>but chose not to. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Alex finally stopped shaking, sitting together in total silence apart from the middle Lucerna's periodic hitches of breath and sniffles. This was the first – and hopefully the last – time that he allowed himself to appear vulnerable in front of his innocent kid brother again.

Yes, while Caiellis had seen him wounded and crying, particularly in the past couple of days, that had been understandable because he had just crawled back from death's door. This was not acceptable. Although Cai wanted to hold this moment forever, he knew that if the king came to check on them again the man wouldn't settle for his youngest's spoken reassurances and would want to see Alex with his own eyes to ensure his safety. He was actually shocked with himself, as he didn't feel angry at Marik for letting Alex get into this state, but was still annoyed about the man almost snapping his already injured arm.

"Alex, it's probably time that we get you up and dressed. I want to get you back in bed before dad comes again, ok?" although he posed it as a question, it was rhetorical, though if his brother hadn't been so distraught he probably would have answered it just to annoy him in the way he often did. Alex nodded into his brother's shoulder, before slowly sitting back up and forcefully wiping his eyes on the corner of the towel, annihilating the tears before drying the rest of his body. _Pull yourself together for angel's sake! __**You're **__supposed to be the big brother in this relationship, not him! _For some reason, he just felt like saying something, but didn't know what, so instead settled on, "You're all bones, little man. You should eat more."

Cai raised his eyebrows at the random statement, but at least it meant the older boy's mental state was improving for now. He sent the seventeen year old a furtive glance to ensure that he was ok, before standing up and retrieving his brother's clothes from where they were strewn around the room, though had the situation been less dire he would have feigned a squeal of disgust at the boxer shorts lying next to the long trousers.

He recalled one day where he had put on his brother's jacket when he felt scared, though it was far too massive for him. Alex had said that he looked far too adorable to properly kick his ass for it, which is what he had been planning to do in his outrage at the younger boy touching his clothes, so instead resorted to playfully pinning him down and wrestling the jacket off him. Cai wasn't entirely sure why that particular memory sprung to mind, but it was a pleasant one so he let it stay. When he returned, he stood nervously in front of Alex, perfectly willing to help but unsure how to prosecute that task without making the state of affairs exceptionally uncomfortable and embarrassing for his big brother, something he didn't want to achieve at the present moment. Alex glanced up at him and then dropped his gaze to the floor, tightening the towel around his shoulders. "Just put then on the floor, little brother. I've got it."

"Are you sure? Because I can, um..." Caiellis was cut off by his older brother, who smirked, "I didn't know you were so interested in me. Anyway, I'm good, little dude. Thanks."

"No problem," Cai did as he was told, turning around to give his elder sibling more privacy while he got dressed, inwardly glad Alex felt that he didn't need help – not that the older boy would tell him if he did. Cai was certain that it wasn't a trust issue, as Alex had shared many things with him that he hadn't with anyone else, but the older boy generally hated people worrying about him, especially his precious little brother whom he apparently thought worried too much anyway. Alexander rose shakily to his feet, using the walls and the bathtub to steady himself. Once the kid's back was turned he loosened the towel, carefully pulling his clothes over the raw and tattered skin whilst also making sure that all traces of weakness were erased from his expression. _Emotional meltdown is officially over. Caiellis no longer has to worry about me, though I'm sure he will._

As if in response to his internal thoughts, as Cai waited for his brother to get dressed he decided he wanted some answers on exactly what had happened, "So, Alex, do you want to tell me what happened?"

Alexander cleared his throat – he could do with a drink of water, maybe admitting to that would make people less concerned – and made sure that all evidence of his previous sadness was wiped out from his next few words. "Nothing, little dude. It has just been a few long days, that's all, and I'm tired."

"Alex, just stop," Caiellis spun around the second the rustling of clothes stopped, presented with his fully dressed brother, his eyes blazing, "I know you better than anyone, and whether you would like to admit and face facts or not, you can't always be invincible. Sometimes you have just got to admit that you are human, and do suffer from moments of weakness. All I want to do is just help you, but I can't if you won't let me."

Alexander took a breath to reply, wincing as his abused ribs protested against it and the pain of his wounds seemed to intensify in time with his brother's utterance. Caiellis didn't miss the grimace that crossed Alex's face, and cut in before he could reply.

"I know it sounds hypocritical, but you should really talk to dad, Alex," he half-suggested, half-pleaded, and the icy glare in his brother's eyes made him want to move back a couple of steps for fear that the older boy would hurt him.

"If not him, then Uncle Tristram, Uncle Tybalt, Elizabex, Leodred – someone! You need to talk to someone, Alex, because-" he began, and his brother interrupted, "Because what, little brother? Because I'm pathetic, a poor excuse for an older brother let alone a prince? I'm sure they all know that," he raised his voice slightly, although it was tinged with self-loathing more than anger directed at Cai. The younger boy felt worse than he had during his migraine, realising how similar he and his brother were, though he was sure that the older boy knew it considering how much he had conferred with him in the past. He let out a tortured sigh, "You know that none of that is true, Alex. You are the best big brother in the entire world, and the toughest person I know. I was going to say that you should tell them you need more time alone and that you aren't ready to deal with it just yet, especially since-"

"I am ready to deal with it! It's just I'm too pathetic to do it!" he roared, grabbing Cai by his forearms and slamming them against the bathroom wall. His rage was immediately cooled when the younger boy gasped in agony and stifled a cry of pain, and the anger instantly turned to brotherly concern. "Oh shit, Cai, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"It wasn't your fault," the younger boy murmured, his soft voice tinted with resignation, and the older brother said, "Sorry, I forgot your arm was still healing." He moved forwards and pulled down the sleeve of his sibling's left arm, before gasping in horror. "Angels! I really didn't mean to do that! I'm really sorry, little brother."

"That wasn't you," Cai scowled, irritated that his father had inadvertently given Alex an excuse to avoid his own pain and focus on someone else's. "I wanted to hide it from you because of your condition, but there is little point now. Dad did it. But it's fine, so don't try and change the subject."

"It doesn't look fine," Alex looked down guilty, incredibly annoyed that he had lashed out at his little brother, but the squirt had been getting into dangerous territory that Alexander wanted to stay far away from, even more so with little Cai. The boy pulled away and Alex took a step back, asking, "When did it happen?"

"Irrelevant," Caiellis replied coldly, "We weren't talking about me; I am perfectly alright." There was a pregnant pause in which both brothers tried to stare the other down, their eyes locking in a silent confrontation. All Alexander could focus on was the bruise on Caiellis's arm, and Cai could see his brother reconstructing his barriers against showing frailty. _I should have been there to protect him,_ the older boy thought, and broke the silence first.

"C'mere, kiddo," he ordered, and Cai decided that he may as well follow the command, eyeing his sibling quizzically as he did so. Alex gently grasped his younger brother's left arm and angled it towards the light so that he could better examine the bruising, both from their father and from Aksua's Nocturon. Cai let out an exasperated exhalation but let the elder Lucerna complete his ministrations. Wincing with sympathy, Alex voiced: "It looks like Aksua's horror got you good."

"She hurt you significantly more than me," Cai pouted, carefully encircling his brother's wrist and pulling out of his grip, an irked look in his bright emerald irises. He grumbled, "Stop changing the subject."

Alex played innocent, earning a deep scowl from his smaller sibling, "What subject?"

Caiellis gave him a frown and crossed his arms with a huff, sighing, "Why do you keep pretending that you are fine? No one expects you to be after what you have gone through, so why do you refuse to share the pain with anyone?"

"Why do you?" Alex returned the question, sensing that Caiellis was becoming more irritated with him, "Look, I'll make you a deal then, little man: If you do the same, then I will share all of my worries with you, ok?"

Though he had no intentions on following through with his end of this bargain, Alex smirked when Cai's eyes lit up – he supposed that it wouldn't hurt to share his concerns with the younger boy so long as he didn't appear vulnerable or pathetic and didn't make his brother worry. "There may be a slight problem with that, and I'm not talking about the fact that you are clearly lying to me."

Alexander blinked. He hadn't expected to be cut down so quickly, though the boy wasn't as much of a little kid anymore, so should have anticipated this sort of response. It was his turn to sigh, realising there was no point in pretending to be hurt or betrayed by the prince's statement, "Right, fine, maybe I was planning to hide most of it from you, but that is because you worry yourself to death. But what is the other problem?"

Caiellis mumbled something under his breath, lowering his gaze to the floor, and Alex cocked an eyebrow at him, curious why the kid seemed so guilty. "Speak up. I know you are small and it is hard to hear what you are saying from all the way down there, but that was way too quiet."

"Dad is sending me to Scientia Mos," he blurted out, and Alexander masked the sharp pang of negative emotions he felt, instead concentrating on the positive ones and plastering them on his face, giving his kid brother an enthusiastic smile. "Cool! Are you going there to prepare the legion? Down look so down, you're gonna love it. Trust me."

Cai considered the words in great detail for a few seconds, before glancing back at his brother, a small smile forming on his own face because of the older prince's infectious wide grin. "Yeah, I suppose it will be good. I guess I was just worried about you."

"You shouldn't worry about me, I can take care of myself," Alex stated, though he knew the words would have no effect. That explained why Cai had been so insistent on making him talk to someone else because he wasn't going to be there, and felt a mixture of worry about his sibling's safety and a more selfish sadness at not being able to see Caiellis for a while, before crushing the emotions. He reminded himself that the younger boy would be just as safe in the City of Books than in Civitas Sol in him, but it still didn't quash the protective notion that automatically rose up inside of him.

"You know, big brother, if you keep piling up problems inside of yourself you are eventually going to explode," Cai cut into his thoughts, breaking the boy out of his reverie and making him roll his eyes. "You're just like a hound with a bone, aren't you? Can you not just let the issue drop?"

"Not until I know that you are alright. Besides, that is a bit rich coming from you," Cai replied evenly, though his eyes emphasised his determination. Alexander sighed in frustration, "Cai, I did it because no one is going to be able to get over this if they all think I need to be coddled, least of all you. All I needed was time to deal with it myself, and that's exactly what I did. End of story."

"If you can _that _dealing with it then I hate to see you not," Caiellis muttered under his breath, though the older boy still heard. "You are just asking for me to beat you up, aren't you baby brother?" Alex smiled, and the words were not intimidating. Cai then asked again, "Are you sure that you are alright?"

"Yes, I think your ultra-girly moment healed me. You must have had a gender change overnight," Alexander smirked at the furious expression creasing over Cai's gaunt and pale features. "Alex, I'm being serious!"

"Look, Cai," Alex said, swiftly crossing the short distance across the room to his brother and placing his large hands on the boy's thin shoulders. "I promise you that I am fine. But if I ever feel this bad again, I am definitely going to tell you. No more secrets. From either of us."

As he spoke the words, he switched his grip and lifted his brother into a hug, and although it wasn't quite at the bone-crushing intensity as normal Cai still couldn't break out, even if he had wanted to. He dolefully rested his head on the older boy's shoulder, breathing in the familiar and reassuring scent of the leather jacket his big brother often wore, and suddenly a thought came to mind. "In that case I had an awful migraine yesterday … actually I guess it was this morning. Midnight, anyway. I'm fine now though."

"It's just joy and happiness in Cai-world isn't it?" Alex joked, resting his chin on his little brother's head as he shuddered at the thought of his little brother all alone in the city in the throes of one of the worst migraines he had ever experienced – just after Caiellis had left him to go see his father and Tristram had taken over watching him, he had woken up and the Guardian had informed him. He felt awful because of the fact he had almost forgotten about it, "But I already knew. Sorry for not asking you if you were alright or not."

"It's ok, big brother. I probably would have just accused you of changing the subject," Cai smiled and pushed his head further into his brother's chest as a wave of sadness threatened to overcome him. He just felt depressed at the fact that he wouldn't be able to see Alexander when he was in Scientia Mos.

"Aww, what's wrong short stack?" the older boy asked, and the younger snorted, "I've not heard that one before."

"Being confined to my bed has given me a lot of time to think," Alex let go of his brother when the boy started to move away, who raised his eyebrows. "You know, one day I'll be taller than you and you'll regret all these stupid nicknames."

"I'm sorry to dash your dreams, but you are never going to be taller than me baby brother," Alex grinned, "And what makes you think that I would stop calling you them even if the unthinkable happened and you got bigger than me?"

"You're impossible to live with," Cai jested back, and his sibling's response was, "I try."

They stood in brotherly silence for a few seconds, both boys thinking about what it would be like without the other there, and once again the eldest broke it. "Come on kiddo, we'd better go out and I suppose I should get back into bed."

"I'm gonna miss you," Cai said, and his brother laughed, "You're only going away for a few days, a couple of weeks at the very most."

"Yeah, but what is the longest amount of time I've spent away from you?" Caiellis shot back, and the older boy paused. Both of them knew that it had only been the very short period at the Scholaria Magnus, less than a day in total, "Fair point. And I'm gonna miss you too, little buddy. Make sure you call me every day on the mana communicator."

"How do you know that I have one?"

"Big brother instinct. Plus, although dad may want you gone because of your incessant arguing, he's not an idiot, nor does he hate you," Alex's voice took on a nurturing resonance, "On the bright side, at least you can't shout at each other if you are miles away."

"Yeah," the youngster stated sullenly, and his brother punched him on the right arm, eliciting a loud yelp followed by an annoyed scowl, "Stop being so depressing, Caiellis. Don't let your worrying about me spoil an educational and enjoyable trip. I mean, at least dad picked your favourite city, and you can go see mum's parents."

"Just promise me you'll be alright," Cai said, and Alex saw the tears in his wide green eyes before the boy wiped them away, "Yes, Boy Genius, I'll be fine. I promise. And have I ever broken a promise to you before?"

"There's a first time for everything," Caiellis murmured, a melancholy aspect infusing his voice, but then resolved to brighten up – he refused to leave on a negative note with his brother. "Thank you, big brother. I-"

"Are you two coming out this century?" another impatient knock resounded through the room, and Cai growled in annoyance before repressing it under Alex's admonishing stare. The older boy shouted, "Yeah, we're coming!"

He leaned a good proportion of his weight on his little brother as they emerged, hoping he was strong enough to help him, who took it without comment, his eyes fixated upon the bed and completely avoiding their father, who moved round to the other side of his eldest to help manoeuvre him back into the bed. Cai then half-leapt into his brother's arms, wrapping his own carefully around the middle Lucerna's chest as the larger boy patted him comfortingly on the back. "You should get going, little man. I wouldn't want you to miss your train. Have fun, and make sure you contact me as soon as you arrived, every day and if you need help, got it?"

"Control freak," Cai teased, but nodded solemnly as both simultaneously said, "Goodbye."

His eyes then flicked to Marik, who stood despondently on the other side of the bed, and spoke: "Dad, what you did was wrong, and you should be sorry for it. But I'm willing to forgive and forget over time, and I think this will be good for that."

Marik looked up from where he had been staring at his hands, imagining them crushing his little boy's arm and feeling sick because of it. "Are you willing to humour your old man and give me a hug?"

Cai shook his head slowly, and the monarch smiled understandingly and sadly in the same instant. His son evidently didn't want to leave on bad terms, judging by his thoughtful earlier statement, but still didn't trust him with contact.

"That's fine, my boy. I hope you find your trip educational and successful. I can go with you to the monorail station if you want," another shake of the head, "Well in that case, goodbye, and Ave Lux."

"Ave lux." the boy replied, before exiting, and Marik turned his anxious but still calculating gaze upon his eldest, who was doing his best to appear nonchalant and avoid it. He sat down in the chair, sighing, "Are you alright now, Alexander?"

"Yeah, yeah," the boy rolled his eyes at his father's dubious smile, who then stated: "I will speak with you later. But despite your brother's wishes, I should go and see him off. I'm positive I can catch up with him before he embarks."

"I'm not sure he'll like it, but I think that is a good move," Alex replied, glad that his father was actively trying to heal the relationship between him and his youngest son.

.*.*.*.

Ilentia strode across the front rank of the garishly garbed Order of Gluttony Enforcers, glaring at the sweating figures in the small squad in front of her. She had soon found that she despised each and every member of her Order, especially the severely lacking Enforcers, but unfortunately she would have to wait until changes could be made, as Tradax had forbidden her from turning it into a potent fighting force like she had wanted, telling her that the Order of Gluttony was an essential part of the Empire and the City of Pleasure. Ilentia briefly mused about how in her past life she had ever let herself get so ridiculously obese, before focusing on her current objective.

They were stood in the humid and dank sewers running underneath Usnaan, the air misty and permeating everything with its entirely unpleasant moist heat. Though they were out of the baleful red orb of the baking sun, its effects could still be felt underground, though Ilentia was not bothered in the slightest. There was a stream of murky brown flowing beneath two pathways encrusted with dirt and excrement, and the passageway down further into the sewers was pitch black, though a wan red light illuminated the small party.

She wished that she could have brought the only Enforcers that she could actually stand with her, but those that had been turned into lumbering Gargantuans wouldn't be able to fit into the sewers, let alone be graceful enough to navigate them. That left her with the normal, and extremely unfit, generic human Enforcers by her side, though she was confident that if it came down to it her might alone would be enough to prevail. Besides, the Enforcers could serve a much more malignant purpose should Ilentia so desire, as she had been begrudgingly taught by Arrapackxia.

The Master of Gluttony's first mission was to annihilate the Resistance that had been so disruptive of Tradax's plans, and it was rumoured that their base was in the sewers, so Ilentia had led her troops there. The Ja'an Guards were masters of infiltration and escape after perfecting such techniques in the Revolution, though Ilentia hoped that they wouldn't be able to conceal themselves or disappear from what was coming. The Master of Gluttony certainly wasn't as easily eluded as the periodic packs of Enforcers sent to locate and destroy the rebels, though there was little to no information on them because of their lack of activity up until this point.

There was no clear plan past simply finding them, as Ilentia had always worked best on impulse before her dark revival, and that particular trait had carried over into what she was now. She knew that Tradax had very deep doubts about her, as she simply wasn't interested in indulging in the pleasures on offer throughout the Empire, which was not fitting for a Master of an Order of Passion. Ilentia's main priority past survival was to faithfully serve the one who had brought her back to life, though she would have no compunctions about killing the Master of Rapture should he try to impede her first concern. She intended to impress him by eliminating the Resistance that had unwittingly led to her creation, and stalked forwards with a feline grace, her long and thin limbs tensing as she made her way across the passageway, beckoning the Enforcers to follow her.

"My lady, what are your orders?" one asked, and she turned around, feeling a violent anger welling up inside of her. They were seriously grating on her nerves, and contemplated why she had actually ordered them to accompany her. A malicious smile crept onto her lips as she remembered the reason why the Master of Rapture had killed her former self – simply because she had been irritating him. Then, he surely wouldn't mind her emulating his example? No, she would restrain herself for now, because there was no point in killing them if she wasn't going to feed them to Arrapackxia just yet, and she needed the demon hungry so that she could find the Resistance headquarters.

"Just follow me," she spat, drawing upon her reservoir of mana as malevolent laughter laced with ravenous hunger echoed through the sewers, causing her soldiers to huddle closer out of fright. The darkness became more solid, and tendrils of shadow dragged themselves out of her outstretched palm, billowing around her and coalescing into a humanoid form. Though her demon didn't seem that impressive, Arrapackxia required feeding to unlock his true potential, and only the meat of living humans would do. She heard one of her Enforcers whimper in terror at the sight of the demon, but ignored the man as the being of Sancturia sneered at her, his eyes glinting with hunger.

"What is it that you want, wench?" he snarled, his tone softening grudgingly after chains of gloom wrapped around him and Ilentia cocked an eyebrow, "Fine, fine. I will located the rebels for you. I can smell their scent from here. But first I require a meal." he licked his lips in anticipation, swivelling his gaze from his Summoner to the petrified Enforcers.

"No, you do not," Ilentia snapped, yanking on the tether and forcing the demon to meet her red eyes. The beast growled deeply, and muttered, "I am going to enjoy killing you." Arrapackxia then took off, loping along the ground on all fours instead of running with just his two legs. Ilentia ran behind him, and the Enforcers followed, their armoured footsteps clattering on the ancient stone of the sewers as they ensured that they stayed at a safe distance from the demon. Ilentia narrowed her eyes as Arrapackxia slunk into a side passageway that to all intents and purposes shouldn't have been able to hold the demon, and swiftly ran after him. She emerged onto a ledge overlooking a wide, more open area than the claustrophobic tunnels, filled with a few terminals that sparked hazardously. The room had about fifty people in it, going about different tasks such as analysing a paper map of Usnaan on a decrepit wooden table, sharpening weapons and cooking. Two men joked and laughed as they played cards on a stool, a woman wielding a curved scimitar attacked upturned chairs to practise her combat skills. Each person below was wearing two gauntlets, one red and one black.

Ilentia felt her limbs fill with expectation, noticing that Arrapackxia had concealed his mana presence with dark magic as to not attract their attention. She drew the elegant twin sabres that had been the former Master of Gluttony, Ershun Firefist's prized family heirlooms despite never actually ever using the blades in combat and that Tradax had gifted to her. She tensed her limbs, and leapt, just as a pale and huge hand grabbed hold of her waist and dragged her forcibly back into cover. It took all of Ilentia's self discipline to not scream in indignation and revulsion at the demon's flesh touching her own, and glowered at Arrapackxia's malicious snicker.

"Patience, my dear," he whispered, and Ilentia had to restrain herself from using her shadow tether and making her Summoning scream in pain, "Look closely at the Resistance members. What do you see?"

Ilentia growled under her breath at the demon, who let go of her, but instead of leaping back into the combat she had been about to start she took Arrapackxia's advice and intently examined the humans below. After about a minute, her frustration slowly building every second, she was about to turn back to the demon before she saw something strange.

The woman, her curved scimitar flashing in the crackling fire of the cooking pot, repeated her motions of slicing into the chairs, using a completely identical technique to the one before. That in itself wasn't that unusual, as a flawless swordsman could easily replicate a series of attacks, but the thing that caught Ilentia's red eye were the chairs. No one had replaced the ones she had destroyed earlier, but here the woman was, attacking the chairs and breaking them in the exact same manner. To confirm her suspicions, Ilentia looked down at the two men playing cards, noting that the one on the left had three different cards in his hand. He played one, and his opponent played another. Then, abruptly, without drawing another card, the first man had three slips of cardboard in his hand again.

"I see," Ilentia nodded, knowing that the demon was able to sense living souls in his hunger, and that those below were anything but. She was honestly quite shocked Arrapackxia had stopped her from jumping down there, considering the amount he seemed to resent her. The demon shrugged, sensing her thoughts, "There is more in the material world to feast upon than in Sancturia, and in my opinion living humans are much more tasty than their soul counterparts."

Ilentia spun around as her Enforcers finally caught up with her, pointing at five of them, "You, you, you, you, and you," she declared, not having bothered to learn any of their names, and elegantly twirled back to the ledge, concealing her smile at the woman obliterating the wooden chairs again. "You have the honour of leading the attack. Now go, for the glory of the Empire!"

The men and women whooped in joy and jumped down onto the lower room, brandishing their weapons and beginning to charge at the figures of the Ja'an Guard, who didn't react in any way. Then, Ilentia felt it. A huge release of Red mana gave the air an actinic smell and she could taste ash on her tongue. The Enforcers remaining behind her covered their eyes at a massive detonation of light coming from the chamber below, and Ilentia looked impassively on as the clones of Resistance members exploded in a spray of molten metal, immolating the screaming soldiers down below in a wave of fire and flowing metal. The sewers shook, depositing rubble and dust next to her party and making some of them cough as others shouted in panic.

"For freedom!" a cry rang out, and her Enforcers turned around as black-clad figures wielding Red magic and a host of Summonings crashed into them. Blood spurted into the air as the ambush commenced, slaughtering the unprepared Enforcers. Ilentia had predicted this course of action the second she knew that the Resistance below had been an illusion – they would be trying to split up the party of Welkalite military, by making them take casualties from the explosion and then assaulting them from the back. Ilentia saw the woman wielding her scimitar hacking through the Enforcer that had asked for orders earlier, her fiery blade turning the man to ash as her Summoning, the Oread that must have created the metal clones of the Guard, incinerated another one of her soldiers. The Master of Gluttony was perfectly content to watch the massacre and intervene when she felt it was right, sensing Arrapackxia's lust to feast increasing every time one of her Enforcers was cut down.

A kind-faced man with a crackling crimson elemental at his side then broke through the ranks, his spear fizzing with electricity, turned in her direction, and his eyes widened in shock. Arrapackxia lowered his concealment magic, and the darkness of a greater demon permeated throughout the tunnel, filling its occupants with dread.

"Get back!-" the man shouted as Ilentia's demon sprang forwards grabbing him around the throat and biting off his head, blood fountaining from the stump as he greedily devoured the corpse, his power levels rising exponentially. He stood up to his full height just as the last of the Enforcers was finished off, huge black wings extending out of his back and scraping the ceiling before Arrapackxia released mana from his hands and annihilated the obstruction, laughing at the terrified faces below.

"DEGAN!" the woman with the Oread shrieked in fury and loss as Arrapackxia consumed the last remnants of the man's body, leaping forward as her weapon glowed with rage. The greater demon bellowed with laughter and back-handed her, and although her fall was minimised by her Summoning Ilentia still heard bones cracking. Arrapackxia shot into their ranks, extending his claws and sweeping them in a wide arc, dismembering and maiming at every attack as a fiery spirit in the form of a woman clothed in robes of smoke and steam shot sparking flames at the demon, who laughed again and battered them away.

"Messa! We need to retreat!" a Resistance member shouted, just as a lance of pure darkness pierced through his stomach, forcing him to cough up lungfuls of blood.

"Now that wouldn't be fun at all, would it?" Arrapackxia's spiteful voice rang out as he sent out bolts of darkness that impaled the spirit that was attacking him, though with the wounding of her Summoner the creature had started to fade already. Ilentia augmented her speed with Red enchantments and sprinted at the group of Resistance members that had been trying to leave, but somersaulted backwards as a pool of magma erupted from the ground she had been about to run on.

The woman who must have been called Messa swung her sword at Ilentia, who blocked it with both of her own and twisted as a bolt of fire came dangerously close to impacting on her side. The Master of Gluttony felt empowered by her Summoning, but Arrapackxia was drawing on her reserves on mana and if she didn't eliminate the party of Ja'an Guard soon then she might end up dying. She wished that her Enforcers would have lasted a bit longer so could be distracting some of the Resistance, as instead of concentrating their attacks on the huge distraction of the fully awakened greater demon they were trying to kill its Summoner first.

She slammed her foot on the ground, mentally ordering Arrapackxia to attack to the group of rebels assaulting her instead of eating the ones he had just killed, but the demon was able to ignore her now that he was fed and did so, continuing to slowly feast upon the humans that tried to flee from him. Ilentia realised that if the Resistance was allowed to escape, it would take huge amounts of searching to locate them again, but for now if she let them get away she knew that they would return and kill her when she was forced to Unsummon Arrapackxia.

Ilentia flipped back from Messa's second swipe, the woman's technique not lost in her rage and forcing the Master of Gluttony into some unfavourable positions. Ilentia snarled and twirled her swords, creating two waves of fire and shadow and sending them at Messa. The Oread intercepted the first wave, nullifying the flames with its own, but the second sapped some of Messa's strength and reduced her energy.

Ilentia frowned as she heard a huge release of Blue mana, and then suddenly the Resistance members were gone. Her eyes widened at the sudden disappearance, and at the fact that the Ja'an Guard had access to such potent teleportation technology, meaning that at least one League of the Yentarian Republic was aiding them, before pure and unadulterated rage coursed through her mind. She turned furiously to Arrapackxia, whose wings were forming back into his body as he hunched over a corpse, and the greater demon took one look at her face and returned to the Mind Realm, escaping her wrath for now.

Ilentia screamed in anger and punched the floor, knowing that she had failed Tradax – although she had killed some of the Resistance, she didn't know where the rest had gone, and the fact that they now knew her strength meant that she would probably never be able to hunt them down again. Her fist was covered in the gore, the blood of her Enforcers and the rebels she and her demon had murdered coating the sewer tunnels in thick, sticky red fluid.

_You win, for now. But rest assured, I will find you, and you will pay for this._

.*.*.*.

Caiellis walked slowly to the monorail station, as he had set off far too early so that he could ensure everything was in place for his departure. His booted feet crunched in the snow, and he carried a large book he had recently purchased with him for the journey. As usual, the scarf he wore hid his identity, though he would have to take it off before boarding the train. As well as Mysos and Jenna, his father had seconded a squad of four elite royal bodyguards to him, but he had told the men (who had been waiting dutifully outside of the Ordo Medella hospital) that as long as they got on the train on time, he didn't mind what they did. It was approaching midday, not that he would know without the new watch he had found in his room when he had gone to it just after leaving his relatives, and after that he had said his goodbyes to Tristram and Tybalt.

Despite his misgivings about leaving Alexander alone, he was massively looking forward to the trip – Scientia Mos was his favourite city apart from Capitalia Lux because of the latter's sheer impressiveness and historical relevance, and he had gotten on well with Hierarch Martha and Guardian Weiss when he had stayed at the city a bit in the civil war, although he hadn't spoken to either in two years.

The boy sensed a familiar presence striding quickly towards him, and exhaled frustratedly, trying to curb the rise of annoyance that tried to disrupt the peaceful state of mind he had created for himself. The man just didn't know when to quit, did he? Cai sighed exasperatedly, irked by the fact that his father had gone back on what he said and decided to in fact come and see him to the train station. However, he still stopped, not wanting to seem petty or ignorant and knowing that if he did increase his pace then the much taller Marik would just catch up with him.

"Why are you here?" he asked, not turning around but directing a sideways glance at dad when he reached his son's side, the king's face cast in resolute determination mixed with parental warmth. Cai would be lying if he said that he wasn't grateful for the man appearing, as it showed that he did care, but they had left each other's company on a positive tone and the fact that his irritation was rising meant that that probably wouldn't last. He knew that if they argued now, just before he left, both would foster the resentment of the other (unless his father decided to act like an adult) until it evolved into something much more foetid and sinister, possibly even directly influencing the war.

"Caiellis, I am aware that you are annoyed and put a lot of effort into ensuring that we parted on good terms, but what sort of a father just lets their children leave without seeing them off and making sure they are safe?" Marik stated, suppressing the desire to embrace his son after the boy's eyes clearly told him he wouldn't welcome that. _I wonder if he __is ever going to apologise properly for what he did earlier, or try and explain himself to me. I doubt it,_ Cai thought, his mind voice clinical and speaking with a detached, surgical precision. He stayed silent, hoping Marik would infer that now his youngest was no longer in the presence of his brother, there was no need to hold up on the pretence of being comfortable near his father.

The king's blue eyes were inscrutable and he also said nothing, so Caiellis set off again with his father pacing at his side, often directing glances at the prince, who kept his eyes fixed on the path ahead, endeavouring to slow down his breathing and trying not to think about his father attacking him. He wanted, no, he _needed _dad to speak, to break the silence and show that he still loved his child, but the king seemed perfectly content to walk in quiet, as if the man thought the silence between them was companionable instead of forced and tense. A couple of guards bowed but otherwise made no moves to prostrate themselves in front of the king, thinking that the man just wanted to act as a father instead of a monarch.

Sighing at his parent's density, Caiellis let his soft voice cut through the quiet, "Was Alex alright after I left?"

Marik smiled at him, though the gesture wasn't entirely suffused with happiness, registering that he had become lost in his own thoughts and that he should have been the one to begin the conversation considering the fact that he was the one who sought out Caiellis. "Your brother still seemed a bit … scared, I suppose, and I am planning to talk to him after you get on the train, but was definitely better than before. Whatever you two did in the bathroom, it certainly healed him."

Cai could feel his father's analytical gaze scrutinizing him, examining him closely for any subtle clues that would allude to what had happened, so ensured that he kept his posture, and expression, neutral. The younger brother was not going to give away Alex's secret, and would just ignore his father if he asked what had occurred, though he doubted the man would be that brash. He refused to give away any information, figuring that if Alexander wanted to reveal his fears to anyone else (unlikely), then it was the older boy's choice, and he knew that if the roles had been reversed then Alexander would preserve his secrecy.

"Just make sure he is alright," Caiellis said quietly, and Marik nodded dutifully. At least neither of them were shouting at each other, though the king had had his hopes dashed numerous times before when he thought they had been making progress. "Anyway, thank you for asking, I'll be fine in Scientia Mos. I will make sure to report back to you or Alex every day on the mana communicator on the state of affairs, but I will need orders so that the mobilisation can be done in synchronisation with the other cities. I assume that we are still following your plan?"

Marik nodded, proud of his son not allowing the animosity that he wished didn't exist between them get in the way of the kingdom's future. What he had done was inexcusable, but he had apologised for it and didn't want the moment of peace between them to end. "Yes, we are still following my strategy. However I have incorporated some elements of yours into it, as they were masterfully done, so instead of a rush at the capital we will destroy other armies to prevent them from reinforcing it before besieging Usnaan."

Cai raised his eyebrows at the compliment, sceptical of whether his father was saying that in some vain attempt to improve their relationship or actually thought that. "You know, sometimes I wished I knew which one of you would be king." Marik stated idly, "Then I could focus on their development instead of having to train you both, and so you didn't have to live your lives in uncertainty."

Caiellis thoroughly disagreed with that – having knowledge of which child would ascend to the throne would create favourites, and the other child would be neglected and ignored in favour of making sure their sibling was prepared to rule, though he knew his father would agree with him on that. However, he couldn't help the irritation from entering his voice the next time he spoke, aiming the question like an accusation, "Did you not think of that?"

"What?" Marik replied, utterly bemused by his son's enigmatic question. Caiellis sighed like he was being forced to speak to an idiot and was indulging him just by deigning to talk, and elaborated, "Did you and mum not think that after you had Alex, it would have been better for the kingdom just to have one heir and not had another child, especially after you were crowned king?"

"To be honest, the thought did cross my mind, but your mother would never have agreed to letting blind loyalty get in the way of what we wanted," Marik said, nostalgically recalling the argument they had had about disciplining their children after three year old Alexander had a tantrum – Marik had originally wanted to follow his father's example, as they dispassionate violence did make him and Johnias respectful, obedient and dutiful, but Emili had vehemently opposed hitting their children. He had relented after a few minutes, knowing that what his wife said about words being far more powerful being right, and wanting to be as far removed from King Garius II as possible. Though he respected the man as a king and sought to emulate that within his own reign, he had never loved him and wanted to be far closer to his children then the man had ever been to him and his twin. The civil war had put a stop to that. "And anyway, we didn't exactly know you were coming."

Caiellis's eyes widened. _What? They didn't know I was coming? That means... _"So I'm a mistake?" he demanded, his voice coloured with rejection, despondency and anger. _Oh shit_. Caught up in his introspection, Marik had forgotten who he had been talking too for a second. He should not have said that. "No, Caiellis, you were never a mistake. You were the happiest surprise that ever happened to me and your mother."

"So you never did want me," the boy sighed, turning away, and although he tried to be cold Marik could clearly see the wide green orbs so reminiscent of Emili's beautiful eyes misting up and beginning to brim with tears. "Caiellis, don't be silly. Of course we wanted you, and I still want you now-"

"So why are you sending me away?" Caiellis raised his voice, the words caught in between an enraged yell and a soft sob, making Marik's heart ache, "Why did you tell me that I was a failure the first time I had spoken to you in _nine years_?! Why did you send me away after only speaking to me properly after one month? Why … Why?" Caiellis's voice drifted off and his pushed his face into his sleeve, "W-Why did y-you attack m-me?" Tears were fully cascading down his face now, so he wiped them away vigorously, and when a hand lightly brushed onto and gripped his shoulder he jerked away, out of reach.

"Caiellis..." dad said as the boy turned back around, looking like all of the thirteen year old he was instead of the adult everyone - including himself but excluding his brother and Uncles – expected him to be. Marik didn't know what to say, he wanted to apologise, throw himself at his son's feet and beg for forgiveness, but couldn't find the words so Cai spoke instead. "Dad, j-just leave. I'm s-sorry, I'm n-not myself. I w-wanted to e-end on a g-good note. Just leave before this escalates further." his voice hardened, "We can start fresh when I get back, ok?"

"Yes. Yes we can," Marik replied softly, reaching out to his son, but the boy started moving away before he could embrace him in a hug. He inwardly smiled at how ridiculous he must have looked, with his hand outstretched and his mouth gawking open, so returned to a normal posture. "Goodbye, Caiellis. I love you, and look forward to seeing you again."

_Sure you fucking do,_ the boy thought, before hiding the emotions under the determined, intelligent and reserved prince persona he often wore in preparation for alighting. _Dad just had to go and ruin everything, didn't he?_

Marik sighed deeply, realising just how much he had screwed that up. Caiellis had been right; he should have just stayed with Alexander and let the goodbyes that had been said earlier be the last the two had seen each other before his youngest's return. He turned around – he may have ruined his chances with one son, but his other still needed his love and help to get through his wounding at Aksua's hands, and Marik knew that by aiding Alexander he was indirectly helping Caiellis as well.

When he entered his eldest son's room, the daughter of his friend Carlis, Elizabex, smiled and bowed respectfully at him and took her leave. He didn't fail to notice Alexander squaring his shoulders, and not meeting his gaze, an instant sign that something was wrong if he needed any.

"Alexander. Are you feeling any better?" he asked, and his son grinned in his direction – he certainly did look significantly improved than before he Summoned Aurelia and forced his father to leave. The boy still had that haunted and vacant look in his eyes, and occasionally the pale blue orbs flicked to the side, as if checking that the room was empty apart from him and his father, and that most likely Aksua wasn't there. "Yeah dad, I'm good. I just needed some time alone. Seriously, I wish everyone would stop asking."

"I'm sorry, but you are _not_ fine, bud. Not by a long shot," Marik stated, attempting a more informal tone once again to put the lad at ease, though he could well empathise with trying to conceal weakness. Alexander's eyes narrowed, and he instantly demanded, "Did Cai say something?"

"About what, my son?" he inquired, sitting down in the chair, and he saw the boy falter. That had been stupid of him – his little brother and their dad never interacted, and although Marik had gone to see him off it didn't mean the squirt would tell him anything. Most likely Caiellis had told Marik to take very good care of him, but not revealed any information as to what had occurred in the bathroom, however Alex was annoyed that he had automatically blamed his innocent younger brother. "Nothing. Forget I said anything."

"I'm willing to bet you had some sort of breakdown the amount of time you spent in there," Marik idly mused, and the visual cues of Alexander's body tensing defensively confirmed his suspicions. "Clearly, you are not in a talkative mood today, with me anyway, so just listen." he received a tentative nod, "I know that you are trying to hide your inner fear, which is admirable, but I am your father. I am not judging you, nor do I expect you to be emotionally unscathed after what happened. You may think that my opinion of you has lessened because of you being what you perceive as weak, but you couldn't be further from the truth. I love you, Alexander, and no matter what happens I want you to know that that will always be true, ok? You are one of the strongest people I know, and I am incredibly proud to be able to call myself your father, although how you are now is not because of me. And I know that you just want to recover and forget about this, like we all do, but don't think you have to carry the burden of what happened on yourself, and if you ever need any help then I am here."

"Thanks," Alexander responded simply, though Marik could sense that his father/son talk had made the boy feel better. Unwilling to focus on himself any longer, the prince diverted the conversation towards his little brother's departure, "So was Cai alright? Did you seeing him off work?"

Marik shook his head sadly, "Suffice to say I wish I could be as eloquent with him as I am with you, and that I should have taken his advice on staying here with you."

"Don't blame yourself, dad," Alexander voiced thoughtfully, "And I know that you aren't, but don't blame him either. I'm sure you two will be able to make it up to each other soon, and I will be with you both every step of the way." _This is just a day of emotional and inspiring speeches, _Alex thought.

.*.*.*.

The vibrations of the monorail train beneath his comfortable and padded seat juddered through Caiellis's trembling body, though he no longer noticed the feeling after two hours of being sat on the train. Mysos and Jenna were in the same booth as him, although the two had given him a wide berth when they saw the mixture of hollow sadness and stormy anger that he couldn't hide on his face, sat in the seats opposite him. He was reading the book on the war against the Drenure kingdom, prosecuted in the ninth century by Queen Arie, and although he already knew quite a bit of information about it the book detailed some battles that he didn't know, as well as more depth into the culture of the Lucaelian's enemies than usually found. Cai was deliberately and utterly ignoring his two advisers bickering about _something,_ though was still listening in, his mind simultaneously processing the inked words of the book and the spoken argument in front of him. The Bylae sisters undoubtedly

Then, a strange sensation dragged its way into his mind, demanding his attention and refusing to allow the boy to ignore it and focus on anything else. He mentally smiled in what would have been a grim and wry manner if it was physical when he identified what it was – every time it emerged, it did so in a different form, though still bringing the same ominous message. Now all that was to be determined was how early it had come relative to what was going to happen.

Jenna completely blanked out what Mysos growled back at her, noticing that the fast paced flicking of pages had ended – Cai seemed to be an exceptionally fast reader, though knowing him he would have still absorbed the knowledge present in the pages with that sponge like mind of his – suggesting that the prince had ceased reading. The Yentarian looked at the boy's face, and although the blank mask he had worn when first meeting her in the palace library was still there, there seemed to be a sense of introspective contemplation that was quickly dissolving into something far more urgent.

"Lord Caiellis, is everything alright?" she asked, intentionally using the title to see if he noticed and also to see if the thing Cai had discovered was important – if it was, then either he wouldn't realise she had said "Lord" or he would ignore it in favour of talking about what was going on in his mind. The boy's eyes flicked up at her, his brow creased in consternation and his emerald eyes full of apprehension, though he hid it underneath resolute steel.

"No, actually," he said calmly, standing up out of his seat.

"We are under attack."

* * *

><p>New Summonings in this chapter:<p>

Degan Onkoda - Generator Servant

Resistance member: Lavaborn Muse


End file.
